Shots in the dark
by baby-kitsune9
Summary: the loneliness of being away from his home planet is finally getting to him, and to make things even worse, he's finally going through the martian equivalent of puberty and has a crush on a pretty little thing who works as a bartender. a modo love story
1. Chapter 1

He sat in the dark corner, far left, in his usual spot. His features half hidden by the shadows. His one dark eye staring at the bar across the building. She was working again tonight, he supposed that he shouldn't be so surprised when it comes to her. Yet some how he is. Surprised and at the same time secretly pleased that he gets to see her again so soon.

She's a beautiful little thing for a human. Angelic features, exotic colored eyes, mid back length strait jet black hair that's up in a hair clip tonight at the back of her head. Petite build, lushly curved figure. She stands at either five foot nine maybe six foot one, if he were standing right next to her- She reached the middle of his chest.

She was wearing his favorite outfit tonight.

A black sleeveless shirt under a long sleeved white shirt tucked into her dark colored skinny jeans. Even her shoes were his favorite ones, the ones that she had worn the night that they had met. The black leather ankle boots with the three inch wide heels.

The ones that gave her just a little more height and added a nice feminine touch to her apparel.

He lifted his shot glass and downed his drink in one gulp, ignoring the burning sensation churning in his gut and lifted his hand into the air and waved, indicating that he needed another drink.

It never occurred to him that she might not be looking. He knew her too well to think that he might not be seen. The woman was _eerily_ in tune to his presence and his needs.

And god help him. He _loved_ knowing it.

He loved knowing that from the second he walked in to the second he left tonight, her eyes would seek him out. He loved knowing that every time he shifted in his seat, or turned his head towards the dance floor, or got up to go to the bathroom or whatever else came to mind- that she would seek him out. That she would watch his every move the way that he watched hers.

Having her eyes on him affected him on so many levels it was like a physical caress. A shock to his system that causing his breath to hitch in his throat and got his heart pumping and gave him a fluttering feeling in the pit of his stomach while his body stirred to life.

A waitress brought him his drink plus two more and he muttered a soft thanks without looking at her. He was too busy staring at her boss.

His sweetheart was currently pouring shots for a bunch of collage kids celebrating someone's birthday. One of the kids- a blond haired guy in a cream colored sweater leaned in and grabbed her hand. He went totally rigid in his seat. His suppressed territorial instincts roared to life. _Violently._ His right eye glowed a feral red as he mentally seethed.

If that damn brat didn't get his hands off of _his_ sweetheart then he'd-

He got up out of his seat and started to go over to the bar, intent to grab the little bastard by the neck and drag him outside for a thorough ass kicking when she grasped the guy's wrist and none too nicely twisted his arm and slammed his face against the bar and hissed something in the kid's ear causing him to pale and quickly nod his head before she let him go and disappeared through the swinging doors leading into the kitchen.

He took a deep breath and sat back down and laced his fingers together in his lap to still the shaking in his flesh hand as she came out of the kitchen carrying a tray with two plates with sandwiches and chips and a medium sized cup of soda and walked towards his booth.

His ears twitched and he perked up in his seat and tried to look like he wasn't bothered by the fact that some asshole had put his hand on her. She stopped an inch or so from the booth and spoke to him in her soft husky, smoker's voice. "Hey handsome, I'm on my break. Want some company?" He looked up at her, his one eye drinking in the sight of her in the dim light.

God she was so beautiful that he couldn't seem to think straight enough to speak around her.

She hung back for a second or so, waiting for him to respond when he finally seemed to remember that she had asked him a question and nodded his head as he scooted over a bit so that he was totally in the shadows as she set the tray down and sat down on the edge of the booth-

He wondered if she sat there out of habit or if she was trying not to invade his personal space as much as he was trying not to invade hers. He knew that she didn't sit there because of fear. Though he'd come across his fair share of women who would be mighty put off by the fact that he was a huge, six foot nine, alien mouse.

She put one of the plates in front of him and he smiled at her in the darkness as his tail snaked out and wrapped around her slender waist. She looked down with a slightly startled look on her face and he chuckled as he pulled her a little bit closer to him. Not close enough to touch, but enough so that she wasn't sitting on the edge anymore.

He unwrapped his tail from around her waist and wrapped it back around his leg as she looked at him out of the corner of her eye for a second before settling in the seat. He picked up his sandwich and took a bite. Not really paying attention to the taste of the turkey and cheese, or the mayo and dijon mustard that he liked. He was barely even aware of the fact that he was supposed to chew his food.

He was too focused on her as she took a small bite of her food. "Lot of kids here tonight." He said after swallowing what was in his mouth. She looked at him and nodded her head and made a humming sound.

"Yeah. There's a lot of kids in the area who've just turned twenty one." She said after a second or so.

This was what passed for conversation with them. Just a few words and then twenty or so odd minutes of total silence.

Yet some how it never felt awkward or uncomfortable. The two of them were aware that if they really wanted to talk for a while then they could ask one another about the books that they had read or even the music or hobbies that occupied their time.

They sat there quietly eating for several minutes before he got up the courage to ask her if she wanted him to walk her to her car again tonight and she smiled at him and said, "That's what I like most about you. Always the gentleman." He never made her feel uncomfortable just like she never made him feel like a freak.

Which was why he liked her so much. They made a cute couple.

Right?


	2. Chapter 2

He waited for her outside the bar at five in the a.m like he always did while she finished up inside.

He was out there for all of twenty minutes, his shoulders leaning against the side of the building, his hands stuffed in his pockets, when she walked out of the door a foot or so from where he was standing. He pushed away from the wall and stumbled a bit and was surprised when a pair of slender arms wrapped around his middle a second or so before he and his companion went tumbling to the ground.

He grunted as he hit the ground and tried to ignore the softness pressed against his back as it registered with him that he had just lost his balance, tripped, and taken his sweetheart down with him when he fell. God could he be any more clumsy and oafish?

"Are you okay, Modo?" She asked as she pushed herself up using one hand placed on the small of his back to do so. Not that he minded any. In fact the small innocent touch was doing funky things to his heart.

It was beating five times as fast as it normally did.

"Mmm. I'mma fine little darlin." He said after a second or so as he waited for her to move back a little bit so that he could get up. She chuckled at his reply and shook her head a little bit.

Okay so maybe he wasn't fine. He'd consumed at least three times his normal amount of liquor tonight because he'd nearly lost his cool earlier. So maybe he was just a _little_ bit tipsy.

"Yeah... I can see that. Look big guy I don't think you _can_ walk me to my car tonight-" She said as she grasped his mechanical arm and tried to help him to his feet but he stumbled again and almost fell on top of her this time.

She managed to catch him though and to keep him from stumbling again by slipping his flesh arm around her shoulders and letting him lean against her. Which he loved. Especially since he was close enough to smell the sweetness of her perfume and the natural musk of her body.

That intoxicating blend of spice and flowers that made him ache.

"I _can_ walk you to your car darlin-" He argued, determined to make her see the truth of his words as they both stumbled along the side of the building towards the parking lot. "And I will walk you to the car..." They stopped for a second and he looked around before saying in a hushed tone. "Even though the world is spinning a little bit and I- I-" He groaned and doubled over a little bit before saying. "I think I'm going to be sick."

She slipped his arm from around her shoulders and let him sink to the ground then put her hand on the back of his head and shoved it between his legs before saying, "Sit there and don't move while I go get the car." He made a humming sound and gave her a thumbs up that almost toppled him sideways while she shook her head and dug her keys out of her pocket and started walking.

Two minutes later she pulled the car up to the doubled over mouse sitting in her parking lot and parked the car for a second and then climbed back out so that she could walk around the car and help the big guy into the car. She didn't think it would be very responsible of her to let the guy on his bike tonight. She really didn't want to read about him having an accident in the morning paper.

"Okay sweetie lets get you up off of the ground and into the car-" She said softly as she grasped his arm again, he lifted his head and looked at her and got a silly grin on his face that was just _adorable_. Really it was.

"You came back."

"I never left big guy."

He awkwardly got to his feet with her help and started to climb into the car when he stopped and turned around and hooked a hand around her nape and leaned down so that he could touch his antenna to her head for a second in an intimate display of affection that was used only between mates. Reviling in the soft gasp of surprise that escaped her lungs as he showed her what it was like when one soul kissed another while making sure to keep the colors of their being separated and his mental touch light so that he wouldn't cause her harm.

It was over in a second yet he felt the lingering effects like an electric shock to his system. She felt it too, he could tell by the ragged breaths she took and the way her eyes got impossibly wide as a soft pink flush stained her cheeks. He memorized the sight and filed it away in the back of his mind before getting into the car and tucking his big body in tight so that nothing would get caught in the door as she closed it.

She held onto the door for a second, her pretty eyes locking with his one and he felt a small sliver of satisfaction when he noted the small tremor that went through her before she shook it off and walked around to the drivers side and climbed into the seat next to him and buckled herself in.

"Where we going?" He asked curiously as he laid his head against the window.

"Well big guy. You can either stay with me tonight or I can drop you off at home. Your choice."

Modo thought for a second.

He liked the first choice. Oh god did he ever. The thought of seeing her home and how she lived and what she did when no one was around. To be able to see her with her defenses down and not have to share her with anyone. The very idea was so _enticing_ to him. Yet he wasn't sure he could keep his head on straight if he went home with her as he was now.

Yet at the same time he didn't want to go to the scoreboard. Vinny and Throttle were there, possibly waiting for him to show up and while he could trust Throttle to be polite and keep his mouth and hands to himself- He couldn't trust Vinny to do the same.

"Drop me off at the corner up ahead. I have a friend who lives in the area. I'll walk there and crash."

She glanced at him, a questioning look on her face and he gave her a small smile and said, "If I have to go home with you one day darlin, I'd rather I be sober enough to enjoy it." Her lips twitched in amusement and she looked away a faint blush crossing her cheeks again as she slowed the car and pulled up to the curb and let him out.

"See you Thursday."

"Yeah. Later sweetheart."


	3. Chapter 3

Rain Erin Taylor walked through her apartment door and dropped her car keys onto the small table next to the door as she closed it behind her and locked it then leaned her back against it and sighed. God what a night. Not really any different from any other-

The image of swirling vivid red touching soft glowing purple/blue flashed through her mind, and her lips tingled like they had earlier when Modo had touched his antenna to her head. Well, okay, not exactly like _every_ other night. Something interesting had happened between her and Modo tonight in the parking lot.

Something life changing and _wonderful_ and so achingly tender-

She shook her head as she ruthlessly pushed her thoughts on what had happened aside and ran a shaky hand through her hair. Forgetting that she had it up in a hair clip until she ended up pulling some of her hair out. She winced and looked at the long dark strands tangled around her fingers and growled. "Dammit."

She hated it when she accidentally pulled her hair out.

Normally she didn't do it that often, just often enough for it to be annoying. But in recent months since meeting Modo, she'd been doing it more and more. She didn't exactly know why she had taken up the habit of pulling her hair out. She just knew that she was usually thinking about Modo when she did it.

She pushed away from the door and walked down the hall to her kitchen intent on eating a late night snack then she would go take a shower and go to bed. She walked into the kitchen and flicked on the light and automatically noticed the flashing light on the answering machine sitting on her counter next to the wireless phone and sighed as she walked over to the counter and pushed the button.

There was a shrill beeping sound followed by, "Hi Rain it's your mother-" She was skipping this message. It wasn't that she didn't want to hear her mother's voice or anything, she did. She even loved her mother but whenever the woman called it was usually to say something weird that _could_ and often times _did_, reduced Rain to a nervous wreck.

The next message was from her older brother Storm. "Rain! Dammit pick up the frigging phone! Mom's in jail and I have no idea what she did and dad is saying shit like she's gone and finally did it- Do you think he means '_it_' it?" Rain felt a headache forming behind her eyes as her brother continued to babble on for about five minutes before he was cut off by the machine.

The next seven messages consisted of Storm calling back and leaving her more messages. Apparently he was really flipping out and didn't think that just one message was enough to get his freak out out of his system.

"Rain! Please pick up the frigging-" Beep.

"Rain, I swear to god I will-" Beep.

"Dammit don't make me-" Beep. Beep. Beep. She went ahead and skipped the next few messages.

"_I'm going to join mom in jail tonight baby sister, cause I'm going to come there and kick your ass_-" Beeeeeep. Rain moved on to the next message after her brother's. This time it was her dad.

"Hi honey, I was just calling to tell you that everything is fine. Your mother went off of her crazy pills again and flipped out. There were a few casualties...but nothing too bad. Ha, ha!" Rain pulled the plug on the answering machine _and_ the phone. Then made a mental note to change her phone number in the morning sometime after she woke up and walked out of the kitchen, flicking off the lights as she went.

She suddenly wasn't hungry anymore.

Which only left a shower- No, she didn't really need a shower tonight. Besides if she went in there to take one after listening to those damn messages from the psycho squad she'd probably give in to temptation and slit her wrists. Which left her with nothing to do but go to bed and lay awake all night.


	4. Chapter 4

Throttle looked down at Modo's unconscious figure, laying face down on Charley's couch and frowned a little bit. He could smell the alcohol on Modo's breath and not for the first time in over a month wondered what the hell was going on with his bro. He'd been acting odd for a while now.

He reached out and put his hand against the gray mouses shoulder and gave a firm push. Modo snorted, rolled over and flung an arm over his eyes and started snoring again. Throttle scowled at him. Hn. That was _not_ the desired effect that he had been going for.

And yet under normal circumstances it would have been more than enough to wake the giant from a sound sleep no matter how much he had drank the night before.

Scratching behind his left ear Throttle thought for a moment then took out the small bottle of perfume he had found in Modo's sock drawer. And took the white top off of the bottle and sprayed some of the perfume just above Modo's face and his fur bristled and stood on end when Modo reached up and wrapped his arms around his neck and before he could even react, planted a nice wet one on his lips.

Ugh. This was not how he had wanted to start his day.

In fact he wouldn't wish this on even his worst enemy. It was just so_ wrong_.

Modo pulled back and broke the kiss then rubbed his nose against the underside of Throttle's chin, making the tan furred mouse all but _long_ to punch him in the face when he heard him mutter something under his breath that sounded suspiciously like, "I love you Rain." Throttle felt his dark mood lighten a bit as understanding dawned on him.

He slipped Modo's arms from around his neck and quietly moved away from the couch and walked out of the room. There was only one person in the area with such a memorable name and that was Miss Rain Taylor. The pretty little thing that ran the bar several blocks away.

He stopped by the kitchen to tell Charely to let the big guy sleep a little bit longer, then warned her not to get too close just in case he decided to get overly affectionate again and then walked out to the garage and got on his bike.

If his bro had a thing for Miss Taylor then he should probably check her out for himself and see what kind of girl she was and if she was worthy of Modo's affections. God knew he couldn't just stand by and let his bro suffer an unrequited love.

Especially when it could end badly for the big guy.

Martian males were notoriously well known for falling for girls that they could never have. Which was part of the_ reason_ their species was dying out. Instead of learning from their mistakes, the males kept _irrationally_ falling for women they wanted but could never be with.

It was pitiful when one really sat down and thought about the statistics. It was like they were all idiots or something.

He pulled his bike out of the garage and onto the road and started riding in the direction of Miss Taylor's home knowing that he might manage to catch her before she went out to run errands if he hurried. Ten minutes later he pulled up to the curb outside of her apartment as she was stepping outside.

She looked at him and frowned for a second as she pulled her door closed and locked it before slipping the apartment key into her pants pocket and walked down the five steps and stopped a foot or so from him while he tugged off his helmet. "Mornin Miss Taylor." Throttle said in greeting as he set his helmet aside and swung his leg over his bike so that he could stand up.

Rain blinked at him, her tired mind working in neutral as she tried to think of his name. "You're-" What was his name? Modle? Totle? Dammit why couldn't she think of his name? She knew that she knew it.

"Throttle ma'am. Brother to Modo and Vinny."

"I know that- I mean- Sorry, I've had a rough night so it's a little hard to think right now. Is everything okay?" Rain asked awkwardly, her expression concerned. Throttle felt like a bastard for putting that look on her face and couldn't seem to stop himself from getting up and closing the small distance between them and putting his hands on her cheeks and kissing her forehead by way of apologizing before dropping his hands and saying.

"Everything is fine. I just wanted to see if you would mind if we hung out for a little bit." Rain rubbed the spot he had kissed with her hand and frowned. These alien guys were sort of...affectionate huh? Every time she turned around Modo was always touching her. But then that felt different from what Throttle had just done.

Throttle gave her a big brother vibe while Modo gave her one of those odd potential boyfriend vibes.

And while she found it a little bit odd that Throttle would practically show up on her door step and ask to hang out with her. She knew enough about him and the other two to know that she would be safe from harm while she was with him. Which was probably why she agreed on the condition that they take her car after she explained that she needed to run some errands and change her phone number.

Throttle agreed knowing that she probably wouldn't feel safe on his bike regardless of how skilled he was at driving the two wheeled death machine and offered to buy her lunch before they came back to her place.

The two shook on it then climbed into her car and left.


	5. Chapter 5

Throttle glanced over at Rain and asked her if it was okay if he listened to some music or something. He was feeling just a little bit uncomfortable in the ten thousand pound car that she was driving and thought that maybe some music would help him to relax so that he could focus on getting to know Rain a little better. She looked over at him for a second and without a word turned on the radio.

Throttle sat there as a song that sounded like it would be nothing but a violin a piano and a guitar started playing a rapid rhythm with sad undertones a second or so before a guy started to sing followed by a verse sang by a woman.

It certainly wasn't the sort of thing that he would normally find himself listening too, but he liked it. Rain seemed to like it to since she knew the words to it. Soon the song ended and another one came on and Rain made a funny sound as she turned it up a little bit and started singing while she drove.

The sound of her voice mixed with the one on the radio making it nearly impossible to distinguish one from another and after about the sixth song or so started playing, Throttle started to wonder just how often Rain listened to the radio. She seemed to know the lyrics to every song that came on. The random order never threw her, the music never seemed to bother her when it went from a rapid song to sweet and slow.

By the time a song called-Behind those eyes you Hide by a band called Three Doors Down came on Throttle was thoroughly convinced that he and Rain would get along just fine if she hooked up with Modo.

She pulled the car into a strip mall parking lot and he looked around wondering where they were when she said, "I'm here to get something for a friend's birthday. You don't mind do you?"

He looked at the different stores along the length of the parking lot and almost gulped when he saw the sign for Bed Bath and Beyond and just_ had_ to ask and make sure that they weren't going in there. It wasn't his fault that he didn't want to go into that store. It was the stores fault. Really it was.

To his way of thinking any store that had so much _nice_ breakable stuff out in the open was all but begging for something to be broken. And with him being a six foot seven inch giant alien mouse with a tail... Well going in there was just asking for trouble of _epic_ proportions.

And he had learned his lesson the last time when he had gone into a similar store with Charley-girl.

The war on Mars had never looked so preferable as it had _that_ fateful day.

Hell being taken down by a group of Plutarkians was preferable to what happened _that_ day.

Rain looked at his expression then at the store he was dreading going into and laughed softly. "Ah, another Bed Bath trauma sufferer. No worries Throttle, we're not braving the nightmare of the Bed Bath and Beyond world."

"Oh thank god." Throttle said in relief as he slumped over in the passenger seat. Earning another laugh from Rain before she said slyly.

"We're going to be braving the wilds of Kohls and Target instead." Throttle groaned but found his lips twitching in amusement before saying.

"Well it's a good thing I have my laser pistol then."

"Yeah, nothing causes stores to clear out faster than laser pistols... Don't shoot the place up. I don't wanna end up on the six o'clock news." Rain said half jokingly and shrieked when Throttle reached across the seat and gave her a small push as he scowled at her.

He growled at her in martian and she laughed and got out of the car and waited for him to join her before she started to walk across the parking lot. Throttle walked three steps behind her out of habit and wrapped his tail around his waist (just in case) and scanned the aisles of various cars and the faces of the people walking on the side walk in front of the stores and so on.

His mind taking note of various details just in case he needed the information later on. If something happened and he needed to find Rain and get her out of the store or something. They reached the door of the first store and Rain started to reach out to grasp the handle to open the door, but he beat her to it by reaching around her.

He must have startled her or something cause she damn near jumped out of her skin before looking back at him.

He gave her a tight lipped smile and muttered a soft apology for startling her like that and pulled the door open and held it for her and let her go ahead of him as he made a mental note to try and make some noise the next time he came up behind her so that he wouldn't end up startling her again and followed her into the store and had to pause in the door and blink in surprise.

Oh dear god it was like a horror house where the souls of men came to die. Everything was just so-so girly that he nearly turned around and went back outside. "Uh... Rain ma'am..."

"I know Throttle. It's horrible. But we shouldn't be in here for more than ten minutes. Think you can handle that?"

"Dunno." But he'd try since she asked him so nicely. Then when they were outside he would start planning to come back later tonight and burn the place to the ground.


	6. Chapter 6

The ten minute Rain promised him turned out to be more like fifteen minutes, but that wasn't exactly her fault. She had found her friend's birthday present easily enough, and had even picked up something for her brother and mom while she was at it. Then on their way to get in line at the register she had suddenly stopped and looked to the left, seemingly entranced by something.

Curious to know what she was looking at he turned his head and blinked in surprise when he saw the clothes racks full of little baby and toddler clothes. He looked back at Rain and saw her reach out and run her fingers along a soft pale blue wool footy outfit with a little purple butterfly on it. She had such a wistful look on her pretty face that Throttle couldn't keep himself from asking. "You like children? Maybe want one or two of your own?"

Rain looked at him and blushed a little bit as she dropped her hand. "I'd love to have dozens of them. There's just something about holding a tiny new life in your arms that melts your heart."

Throttle's lips twitched slightly in amusement before he cleared his throat and asked awkwardly, "And have you found someone to help you...uh...make those kids?"

Rain opened her mouth to answer him but abruptly shut her mouth and flushed a brighter shade of pink as an image of Modo flashed through her mind causing her to stutter a little bit before telling him to mind his own business. Throttle chuckled at how flustered she had gotten and watched her walk off a little ways before looking back at the baby clothes.

A thoughtful expression crossed his face and on a whim he pulled the little blue outfit from the clothes rack and started walking towards the registers looking for Rain. Once he found that she was already in line he went and got in line in the lane next to hers. She glanced over at him with a questioning look on her face and he smiled but said nothing.

He managed to keep her from seeing the little outfit by keeping it well out of sight while he was paying for it, then hid it away in a plastic bag along with the receipt then walked over to where she was and waited for her to finish paying for her things.

Once she was done he picked up her bag and started walking. "What did you buy?" Rain asked curiously as she fell into step beside him. He glanced down at her and gave her a mischievous smile and said.

"Mind your own business."

There was _no_ way that he was going to tell her that he was planning to give the outfit to Modo to sort of light a fire under him. He knew enough about the older man to know that all it would take is one look at the cute little one piece and he'd all but kick down Rain's door to claim her as his mate and start a family.

And to be perfectly honest Throttle would kind of like to have a little tyke or two crawling around, tugging on his tail and his ears. Laughing, crying, drooling; he didn't care as long as Modo was happy with his choice in life mate. Besides, he thought he'd make a decent uncle.

He'd even volunteer to baby sit whenever Modo and Rain wanted some alone time.

They walked out of the building and across the parking lot to the car in silence before Throttle finally asked Rain point blank. "Do you like Modo?" Rain gave him a startled look over the top of the car and dropped her keys. Muttering something unlady like under her breath she bent down to pick them up and hit her head on the car door and yelped causing Throttle to sigh and roll his eyes behind his shades.

So that was a yes then? Or did it qualify more as a maybe?

Why couldn't females just say something instead of leaving clueless guys to guess at what they thought? Was it some secret plot to drive all males on the planet insane?

Rain rubbed her head as she picked up her car keys and wondered why Throttle had asked her that. And out of the blue like that too. It wasn't that she didn't like Modo. She did. She liked him a lot.

He was different from all of the other guys that she had known. And it wasn't just because of the tail and fur.

No. There was something else about him that just seemed to call out to some deeper part of her. The wild part of her that just wanted to push him down in the booth that he was always sitting in and see just how much _petting_ and _stroking_ he could handle.

She'd even been having naughty dreams about him recently. Really, really, _really_ vivid dreams that she always awoke from feeling hot and sweaty and breathless and her body always _ached_ in the most peculiar way.

The dreams had been making it harder and harder for her to get close to him since every time she saw him something from one of her dreams would pop into her head and she would start to ache all over again. "Rain, is everything okay?" Throttle asked from right next to her causing her to squeak and jump at the sound of his voice as she looked up at him wide eyed for a second before nodding her head and standing up and unlocking the car door.


	7. Chapter 7

Lunch at the local Denny's was nice.

Throttle was descent company who always opened the door for her, and even went to the trouble of pulling out her seat and had been amused when she had awkwardly pulled his seat out for him before sitting down in her own.

Curious to know why she had pulled out his seat for him before taking her own he had asked her what she was doing and had chuckled when she flushed and apologized for not really knowing what was proper etiquette when a guy pulled out her chair. Throttle hadn't really known what to say to her about that and had just chuckled before taking his seat.

All the while wondering just what sort of guys wouldn't be polite enough to pull a chair out for a pretty girl. He just didn't get humans sat there quietly for ten minutes or so, just looking around.

Apparently Rain had never stepped foot in the restaurant. Not that he could say much about that since he'd never been there before either. But it looked nice enough and had the cozy atmosphere that Throttle preferred to the hustle and bustle of more crowded places.

A waiter came to their table and handed Throttle a menu then handed one to Rain and hung around for an annoying five minutes or so trying to flirt with her. Throttle had been tempted to violence before, but never against a puny and defenseless human. But this guy just seemed to be asking for a good thrashing.

He kept looking at Rain's breasts-

And on more than once occasion Throttle had caught himself starting to snake his tail or his foot out to knock the guy down in the hopes that he'd hit his chin on the edge of their table and spit out a few teeth.

But Rain didn't seem to need his help at all. She handled the annoying man like she handled the drunks that sometimes felt her up at the bar. Coolly, effectively, and _viciously_, reducing the man to tears before the manager showed up to smooth things over with them.

Once the manager was done finding out why Rain had just unloaded on his employee, he apologized to them and gave them a large plate of cheese fries and two other dishes for free since their waiter had been so rude and offended Rain. He left a minute or so later and Throttle and Rain were finally able to relax again.

"I've never seen a lady handle a perv like that." Throttle said thoughtfully as he ate several fries topped in bacon bits. Rain shrugged her shoulders but said nothing. She was used to guys like that talking to her, saying lewd comments to her, propositioning her, and feeling her up. So she had learned a few things from her mother and her brother about how to emasculate a guy with just a few choice words.

And if that didn't get her point across she had ten years worth of kick boxing, and karate lessons under her belt and could easily break someone's face if they didn't get the hell away from her when she said for them too.

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Modo woke up with a small headache and a serious need to hit the bathroom.

His bladder felt like it was going to explode if he didn't relieve himself.

Not only that but Charley might kill him if he ended up having an accident on her couch. He cracked open his one eye and looked over the arm of the chair he was carelessly sprawled in and looked around the room for a second trying to recall where the door out of the living room was before he pushed himself upright and stood up on slightly unsteady legs and half staggered half walked out of the room and out into the hallway just as Charley was coming out of the kitchen.

"Oh Modo-" She said cheerfully. Quietly, but cheerfully. God bless the woman for trying not to make his headache worse. "I was just on my way to wake you."

Modo made a humming sound. She must have decided to turn him over onto his side just in case he got sick or something. Or maybe she knew that he really had to use the bathroom and had been planning to wake him so that he didn't force her to start covering her furniture in plastic just to protect it.

"Mornin Charley." He said in a tired tone as he started to step around her.

Charley however must have had something on her mind because she stepped in front of him and stopped him. Modo sighed tiredly and looked at her. "Something on your mind Charley-girl?" He asked curiously. Charley looked at him for a second and seemed to be thinking before saying.

"Do you want coffee?"

Modo's lips twitched slightly in amusement. He knew the woman enough to know that she had something more on her mind. Something that she obviously didn't feel like sharing just yet. "That would be nice. Thanks." He said as he leaned down and kissed her on the cheek before brushing by her and heading to the bathroom.

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Throttle climbed out of Rain's car and took a moment to stretch his legs and roll his shoulders before lifting his arms and putting his hands behind his head as Rain walked around the car and stopped about a foot or so from him and said, "You look happy. Ecstatic to finally be out of my cramped car?"

Throttle chuckled. "That's a loaded question if I've ever heard one. Are you trying to see if I'll get myself in trouble?"

Rain snorted. "No. I was merely asking a question based on how happy you look to finally be out of my car. I know how cramped you must have felt in it."

Throttle blushed a little bit under his fur and slowly dropped his arms as Rain held his bag out to him. He took it and muttered a soft thanks followed by an apology for looking so happy to be free of the sardine can that she called a car. If he had known how cramped it was in there from the beginning, then he would have just followed her on his bike.

Not that he hadn't enjoyed his time getting to know her. He had.

Rain was an kind, but probably misunderstood person due to her laid back personality.

But Throttle knew better after spending the last four hours with her. Rain was tough, but firm when dealing with people. When someone stepped out of line with her or got on her nerves, she said or did something about it.

Which meant that she was no push over. Something that Throttle knew Modo admired in her since Throttle himself admired her for the same thing. Modo and Rain would be good for each other.

There was just one little problem that he wasn't sure if Modo was aware of.

Rain Taylor wasn't the love em and leave em type. She wouldn't settle for anything less than the whole fairy tail. Which meant that Throttle had his work as a fairy god mouse cut out for him.


	8. Chapter 8

_Rain Taylor wasn't the love em and leave em type. She wouldn't settle for anything less than the whole fairy tail. Which meant that Throttle had his work as a fairy god mouse cut out for him._

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Throttle's bike pulled into the Last Chance Garage at two thirty in the afternoon and found Charley hard at work on a car that had been left by one of her many customers. The brunette raised her head and looked at him while rubbing at some grease smeared on her left cheek. "Hey Throttle. Where were you off too in such a hurry this morning?" She asked curiously as he tugged his helmet off and set it aside.

He glanced at her and grinned as he lifted one hand and put his index finger against his lips and said, "It's a secret-" And speaking of secrets, maybe he should share the little present he got for Modo with Charley and get a woman's opinion on it. "But I do have something of a present for Modo and I'd appreciate your opinion." Throttle said as he lifted the seat on his bike to pull the plastic bag with the little onesie out the hidden compartment and opened the bag and pulled out the outfit as Charley walked over to him and blinked at the baby outfit before giving him a questioning look and saying.

"Awww, that's cute... So is this your way of telling me something?" Throttle blushed a little bit under his fur then bristled and growled at her.

"_No_. It's not for me. It's for Modo."

"Modo?" Charley wondered aloud, confusion evident in her expression.

"Modo has a crush and I thought that this might be a nice _fun_ gift that he could eventually use." _If he ever decides to make a move on Rain before someone else_ _snatches her up_. Throttle thought as Charley gave him a wide eyed look before making a humming sound as Throttle put the baby outfit away and headed for the door leading to the apartment attached to the garage so that he could get out of the way and let Charley get back to work.

Throttle stepped into the hall outside of the garage and pulled the door gently closed behind him and started towards the living room to find Modo.

Modo was feeling much better after taking some asprin, drinking five cups of coffee, and eating something for a late lunch. His head wasn't hurting anymore and he was in a pretty good mood.

There was a bunch of monster movies on the Sci-Fi channel and he was in control of the remote. Life didn't get much better than this.

Throttle walked in and Modo glanced at him for a second before looking back at the TV screen just as some poor guy got his head bitten in half by some fanged nightmare that had been summoned from the very depths of what humans called 'hell'. "How are you feeling bro?" Throttle asked as he prowled across the room like he was expecting trouble of some sort.

Modo picked up on Throttle's tenseness even without looking at him. There was just something about the way his leader moved when he was expecting trouble that made him lighter on his feet and more alert despite the fact that he didn't really_ seem_ like he was paying attention at all. "I'm fine..." Modo said after a second or so as he reached for the TV remote intending to turn the movie off when Throttle stopped him.

"You don't have to do that Modo."

Modo twisted around on the couch and looked at the tan colored mouse as he moved to stand behind him. Modo was about to ask him if everything was okay when Throttle reached out with one gloved hand and absent mindedly put his hand on top of Modo's head and ran his finger nails along his scalp in a fashion that would look more than a little wrong to anyone who didn't know that it was a little bit of a nervous habit that Throttle had developed during the war.

A way of assuring his friends that everything was fine without speaking.

Modo sighed and felt some of his tension drain away and rested his chin on the back of the couch as Throttle took his hand away from his head and put a plastic bag with something in it on the table next to where Modo was sitting before saying in a gruff tone.

"Rain's a nice girl. She'd be good for you. Enjoy the present bro." And before Modo could react or even ask what Throttle meant or better yet what the hell he was talking about-

Throttle all but ran out of the room and disappeared somewhere.

Modo frowned and picked up the plastic bag and opened it up and stared at the contents before blinking in surprise then snarling a horrible string of curses that would make even Vinny blush in shock and jumped to his feet and roared, "Throttle! What the fuck have you done?"

He'd kill his bro if he had done what he thought he had.

Rain was off limits. _Period_. He didn't want anyone with a dick near her, talking to her, looking at her, or even breathing the same air as her.

He went barreling out of the living room, his eye glowing a feral red as he made his way down the hall into the garage hoping that he'd find Throttle there. But neither the tan furred mouse, nor his bike was anywhere to be seen. Which meant that the sneaky bastard had run for it as soon as he'd given him the plastic bag.

Charley looked up from the car she was working on as he growled in annoyance and stomped over to his bike and grabbed his helmet as Charley asked, "You don't like the baby outfit huh?"

Modo opened his mouth then shut it and gave her a startled look as he processed what she had just asked him. "W-What?" Baby outfit? What baby outfit? All he had seen in that plastic bag was what looked like a woman's shirt which had caused him to get pissed because he had thought that Throttle had gone shopping for something inappropriate for Rain.

So what the hell was Charley talking about baby clothes for? He's have to find out later. Right now he wanted to go see his girl.


	9. Chapter 9

It took Modo under ten minutes to reach Rain's apartment due to the fact that he had been speeding the whole time. Normally he wouldn't have done something so reckless and against the law, but figured that as long as he didn't cause any accidents then no one would care.

And in the end, when he climbed off of his bike and walked up the steps leading to her front door and knocked, it was totally worth it to see Rain answer her front door wearing nothing but a long satin robe that was tightly tied around her slender waist, the deep V of the neckline showing the soft curves of her breasts.

Modo stared at her chest for a second before catching himself and quickly looking up at her flushed face, her dark hair was loosely piled on top of her head and held in place by several bobby pins.

"R-Rain?" Choked out in a shocked tone as his tail started tying itself in knots behind his back.

She blinked at him. "Modo? What are you doing here?" She asked curiously as he sputtered.

"Never mind me! What are you doing answering the door like that?" Modo growled at her after a second or so as a car drove by and the driver had the nerve to lean out the window and yell something lewd at Rain. Modo turned his head enough to see the license plate of the car as well as the color, make, and model. He'd look for it later. When he left Rain's place.

Reaching out absent mindedly he put his hands on her shoulders and gently pushed her back into the apartment and used his body to block the door as another car passed. Modo muttered an oath under his breath and pushed Rain back a little bit farther so that he could slip inside and close the door before muttered, "Sorry about the intrusion." As he entered her home and quickly slammed the door closed and leaned his back against it looking like he'd like nothing more than to nail the damn thing shut.

Rain stood there for a second or so with a blank look on her face before remembering that she had been in the middle of a bath when she had heard someone knocking at her front door. And had put on her long robe to go see who was disturbing her in the middle of her relaxation time, and blushed a little bit as she looked down at herself. God when she went without sleep it was like she lost any and all traces of common sense.

No wonder Modo seemed so upset when she answered the door.

She wasn't wearing anything!

"I...should probably go put some clothes on..." She said after a second or so drawing Modo's attention to her.

"_Yes. Do_." The words were curt, and angry and for some unknown reason hurt her a little bit as she turned and quietly walked back down the hall to her bedroom and slipped inside and closed the door. Missing the anxious and slightly nervous look on Modo's face as he slumped against the door a little bit and covered his face with his hands and slowly counted to ten before finally dropping his arms back to his sides and moving away from the door.

He couldn't believe that Rain had answered her door in her robe. Was she trying to kill him? Or simply drive him insane with lust and cause him to jump her? Cause right now he was pretty sure that he could go either way. His heart was going a mile a minute and he was already _painfully_ hard.

He'd have to make this a short visit or he might end up doing something unforgivable.

Rain took her time getting dressed. Partially because her feelings were hurt and partially because she was starting to get tired. Missing a whole night of rest then running around for a couple of hours this morning must finally be catching up to her. She had originally been planning to take a nice long nap after her bath, but now she wasn't sure if she'd be able to do that.

Not that she was complaining.

She just hadn't expected to have two visitors swing by her place unannounced. Throttle had been a nice diversion from some of the stress that she had felt when she had rolled out of bed this morning. And Modo...well...she could only guess at what had brought the big guy by her place.

She pulled a black short sleeved cotton shirt over her head and started to tuck it into the waist band of her low riding jeans when she stopped herself and wondered why she was bothering to tuck her shirt in when she was at home. She was supposed to be able to relax here wasn't she?

Shrugging her shoulders at her own mental question she walked over to her dresser and lifted her hands to her hair and carefully picked out the bobby pins holding it on top of her head and then grabbed her brush and ran it through her hair two or three times to work out the tangles then set her brush down and slowly made her way back to the door and opened it and peeked out.

Modo was glaring out the window next to her front door. His one eye glowing slightly as he caught sight of the bastard that had driven by Rain's apartment earlier and yelled that lewd comment at her. He gnashed his teeth and made a low growling sound as he started to reach for the latch so that he could open the window.

He wanted so badly to yell at the man driving the car that if he saw him drive by again, he'd shoot his tires out. And he might have done just that if Rain hadn't come up behind him and peered out the window around him as she asked, "What are you looking at?"

He jerked and accidentally elbowed her in the stomach with his mechanical arm, causing her to yelp in pain and stagger back away from him before sinking to the floor with her arms wrapped around her stomach. Modo turned and gave her a wide eyed horrified look and started to take a step toward her, completely forgetting that he was holding onto her curtains and accidentally jerked the bar down onto his head in his effort to go see if she was okay.

"Ow! Shit. Rain!"

"I-I'm o-okay." Rain wheezed in a strained tone as she looked up at him with a pained look on her face.

Modo's ears flattened back against his head as he dropped to his knees in front of her with an anxious look on his face and gently grasped her wrists in his hands and pulled them away from her stomach and then lifted her shirt a little bit. And made a hissing sound when he saw the beginnings of a dark purplish/blue bruise right in the middle of her belly, just an inch or so above her belly button.

"Oh god Rain, I'm sorry-"

"That's okay Modo. I'm fine..." Rain gasped out after a second or so.

"Don't lie-" Modo snapped before catching himself and softening his voice. "I can see the bruise forming already. Are you having trouble breathing? Do your ribs hurt?" _Did I accidentally break your ribs?_ Modo wondered worriedly as Rain gave him a pitiful looking smile that made him want to cry and he couldn't stop himself from reaching out and dragging her into his lap and holding her while he tried to think of what he could do to make this up to her.

It would probably be better if he left her alone, but he didn't think that would be wise. Not if he had broken one of her ribs. She'd likely suffer from a punctured lung and die if he left her alone.

He could try taking her to the local hospital. Just to have her checked out. Then he could leave her alone. God knew that she probably didn't want to see his face anymore after this.


	10. Chapter 10

Sorry-

I uploaded the wrong thing.

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"I need to take you to the hospital-" Modo said in a slightly panicked tone as he reluctantly shifted his hold on Rain and started to get up when she moaned softly and rested her head against his shoulder and said.

"No hospitals, Modo. Just put me in the living room and I'll rest."

"But you might have a broken rib-" Modo argued in a aghast tone.

"I don't."

"You can't know that for sure! You're barely breathing-" He nearly yelled at her before catching himself and softening his tone. "Besides that you need to be checked out by a professional."

"What I need is time to catch my breath and to maybe take some asprin for the pain in my stomach. Maybe take a nice long nap."

"Don't go into the light-" Modo said suddenly, his thoughts running away with him and translating the words 'take a nice long nap' into something along the lines of 'oh my god, I'm dying'. "I hear that there are monsters with fangs and claws and other really scary things waiting in the light..." He continued to ramble when Rain cut him off by saying.

"Really? I heard that there was fluffy clouds and harmless little puppies in the light."

He snorted as panic seized him. "Whoever told you that was a bald faced liar and I don't ever want you to talk to them again!"

Rain snickered in amusement. "Right. Memo to self. Stop talking to mom." Modo made a mortified, choking sound. Oh crap. How could he have said that before thinking?

He'd not only possibly broken her ribs but just called her mother a liar and told her not to ever talk to her again. If not for the fact that he was holding her in his arms right now, he would have probably slammed his head against her wall until he lost consciousness or something.

"What? Shit. Rain, I didn't mean-" Modo started to tell her that he was sorry for insulting her mother when she gave another strained sounding laugh and reached up and laid one of her hands on his cheek, right under his eye patch. Effectively _silencing_ him and _calming_ all at once.

"It's alright big guy. I know what you meant." His ears drooped a little bit and he gave her a sad look. Wondering how she could forgive him so easily when he was so awkward that he hurt her, insulted her mother exct.

"No. It's not alright-"

"Modo, please stop arguing with me. It's fine. Really it is. If it makes you feel any better I would be overjoyed to have an excuse not to talk to my mom for a while." Rain said cheerfully. Modo gave her a slightly pained look. He needed to get her to the hospital and have her checked out. He reminded himself as he turned around and started heading for the door.

"What are you doing?"

"Taking you to the hospital like I said I would."

Rain reached up and took a slightly painful grasp on his ear and pulled causing him to tip his head to the side and yelp. He stopped walking and wrapped his tail around her wrist and _carefully_ tried to pull her hand away from his ear. "Ow! What are you doing?"

"I told you that I didn't want to go to the hospital."

"Well too bad!" He growled at her and was startled when she reached up with her other hand as she let go of his ear and smacked her hands lightly against both of his cheeks.

He stood there for a second just staring blankly ahead. Unable to comprehend that he had just more or less got smacked by the girl that he loved. For trying to look out for her no less! Did the damn woman have any idea how vexing she was being right now?

"_What. Was. That. For_?" Modo asked in a dark tone that Rain had never heard before as he slowly turned his head so that he was looking at her. His one dark eye glowing faintly in the dim light, giving him a menacing look.

"I'm not going to the hospital Modo." Rain said fearlessly as he glared at her. She felt his fingers tighten on her left shoulder, his finger nails biting into her skin slightly as he growled.

"I don't care what you want. You're going."

She lifted her hands again and smacked both of his cheeks a little more sharply than she had the last time and he stiffened as his glare intensified as she dropped her hands and glared back. Not the least bit bothered by the terrifying look on his face.

She'd seen much, _much_ more frightening looks than this one. "I'm not going. I'm staying here and I'm going to take a nap-" He opened his mouth to argue with her further but she quickly placed her hands over his mouth causing him to blink at her in annoyance. "Now you can take me to the living and put me on the couch and then _if_ your still worried then you can put on a movie and keep me company to make sure that I'm still breathing when it's time for me to wake up and go to work. Agreed?"

Modo narrowed his eye at her and looked mutinous.

There was no way that he was agreeing. There was no way that he was agreeing. _There was no way- _His tail thrashed behind him as he flattened his ears against his head and looked _immensely_ displeased as Rain gave him a pitiful 'kicked kitten' look and he caved like a house of cards.

God he was pathetic.

Ten minutes later he was sitting on Rain's couch with her cradled in his arms, her head laying on his shoulder, the movie that he had put in was playing. And he wasn't able to enjoy any of it.


	11. Chapter 11

Modo laid Rain on her couch and grabbed the cover that had been folded over the back of the couch and used it to cover Rain so that she wouldn't get cold now that she no longer had his body heat to keep her warm and straightened his spine and walked over to her TV and turned it off.

The movie he had put in when Rain had first dozed off had ended several hours ago.

But because Modo had been so reluctant to leave, he's re-watched the same movie over and over and over and over again before he had started to get hungry. And with Rain sleeping so soundly, he felt comfortable enough to leave her side. Just long enough to fix something for them both to eat and call the bar to let them know that Rain wouldn't be coming in tonight. And to call the garage to tell Charley that he might not go back to the score board until sometime in the early morning hours.

He was still worried about leaving Rain alone after hurting her.

He walked out of the living room and looked around the hall way for a second, wondering where the kitchen was before he started wandering through the apartment until he found the kitchen. He had a quick look around the room, noting the phone sitting on the counter, the pots, pans, silverware, plates and bowls in the dish rack.

He walked over to the fridge and went through it and the freezer to see what he could make for the two of them to eat and decided on fixing some chicken and a broth based soup with a salad after coming across the vegetables in the fridge.

He pulled a medium sized thing of chicken thighs and legs out of the freezer and laid it on the counter so that he could go through her cooking spices and see what he could use to flavor the chicken and the soup he was planning to make.

He had to taste test a few things since they smelled a little iffy but in the end he found some stuff that he could use and set the spices aside then put the rest away and put the chicken in the sink and turned on the hot water to thaw out the meat a little bit while he pulled vegetables out of the fridge and set them on the counter. Then grabbed the cutting board that was hanging on the wall next to the stove and set it down then went through several of the drawers until he finally found a sharp knife that he could use to cut the vegetables up.

He washed the red onions, the yellow and red peppers, the lettuce, and three carrots. He dug a descent sized bowl out of the cabinet next to the place where she kept her plates and then started to cut up the lettuce and put it in the bowl then started to scrape the skin off of one of the carrots until he had nothing but a tiny orange nub in his hand.

He set the remains of the mangled carrot aside and picked up the onion and peeled the first layer off and then glanced almost absent mindedly towards the sink to gauge the water level and after deeming the sink full enough turned off the water then shifted his attention back to the onion and cut it in half.

He cut several thin strips from the onion and then set the first few pieces aside for the soup then cut a few more and added them to the lettuce and carrot in the bowl.

He spent several more minutes cutting up the peppers and added another carrot before setting some of the red pepper aside for the soup then put everything else away and cleaned up the mess that he had made.

Next he grabbed a frying pan and some olive oil and poured some oil into the pan and set it on the stove and turned the eye on low and then fished the chicken out of the sink and tore open the package and laid the chicken out in the pan and sprinkled it with a little bit of salt and pepper then turned the eye up to medium. Then went to find a pot to make the soup in and went through her cabinets again to find some chicken broth.

Once he had the chicken broth, onion slices, peppers, and carrot in the broth he set it on one of the back eyes on the stove and turned it on simmer then wiped his hands on a towel that he found laying on her counter then moved to see what was going on with her phone.

He tried dialing it first to call the club and was just a little bit taken aback by the fact that there was no dial tone. It struck him as a little odd that her phone didn't seem to be working, especially since he was fairly certain that she took her responsibilities seriously. He tinkered with it a little bit then found out why it wasn't working.

It was unplugged.

His one eye twitched a little bit in annoyance as he plugged the phone back into the wall and tested it for a dial tone and made a soft sound and dialed the bar and after a quick talk with Micheal, was assured that Rain wouldn't have to show up for work that night or the night after just to be on the safe side. Modo thanked Micheal and hung up then called the garage.

Charley picked up. "Hello."

"Charley."

"Hey Modo. Where have you been all day? Throttle came back a few hours ago to see if you were okay."

"I-I'm at a friend's place. There was sort of an accident-"

He could hear the automatic change in her voice. The joking tone seemed colder to him as she asked, "Are you alright?"

"Uh...I-I'm fine. But my friend on the other hand..."

"What happened?"

"A freak accident. Don't worry about it Charley-girl. I was just calling to see if you'd tell Throttle and Vinny not to expect me home until really late in the morning. I want to stay here and make sure that my friend doesn't have any broken ribs that could puncture her lungs."

Charley was quiet for a second and he could almost swear that he could see the amused smile that crossed her face when she answered him. "Sure thing big guy. Just do one thing for me."

"Okay."

"Make sure that you give her a good night kiss before you leave." Charley said and laughed a little bit when she heard him make a choking sound before he stuttered a hasty goodbye and hung up.

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Rain had been sleeping for hours.

A testament to how exhausted she really was considering that she hadn't slept the night before. She remembered dozing off in Modo's arms, listening to the comforting sound of his heart beat. And when she woke up...

The living room was dark except for the dim light from some candles that had been lit. She blinked her eyes twice and looked around the room.

Wondering what it was exactly that had woken her and noticed immediately that Modo wasn't in the room with her like he had been earlier. She pushed herself up onto one elbow and swore at the sharp pain that she felt in her stomach and sub consciously curled her body to ease the pain before she slowly lay back down and rubbed the spot on her stomach that hurt while wondering where Modo was.


	12. Chapter 12

Modo was in the middle of turning the chicken when he heard the faint rustling of fabric followed by an inaudible curse and paused in mid motion and cocked his head to one side to listen as his ears twitched. A second or so went by and he heard another inaudible sound and sighed.

Damn. It looked like Rain was awake.

He finished turning the chicken and then put the top back on the pan and lowered the heat to simmer and set aside the tongs then walked around the small island and over to the door and peeked out wondering if Rain was okay.

If she was awake now then she must either be in pain. Or in desperate need of a bathroom.

He flushed a little bit under his fur and flattened his ears against his head and trapped his tail at his side with his hand to keep it from twitching as he stepped out into the hall way and walked to the living room and peeked in like a child would when they were up past their bedtime. He wasn't sure exactly why he was sneaking around, Rain didn't seem like the type to mind having someone watch over her when she was laid low.

But for some reason he couldn't help being cautious.

He scanned the room and found Rain half sitting, and half laying exactly where he had left her. She had a pained look on her face and he could have kicked himself for hurting her in the first place. Accident or not it was _inexcusable_ for a man to ever hurt his woman.

He studied her in the dim light for a moment or so longer before stepping into the room, and froze when her head snapped up and she looked right at him and quickly blanked her expression. Silly woman was hiding her pain so that she wouldn't make him feel bad. And while he admired that quality in her, at the same time he found it unnecessary for her to hide her pain from him.

He was supposed to feel _guilty_ about hurting her. He was supposed to _want_ to make it up to her.

"Ah. Modo...I was just wondering where you were." Rain said in a strained tone as she pushed herself completely upright and flopped back against the couch shaking and panting a little bit. Modo felt his chest ache for a second before he walked over to the couch and dropped to his knees in front of her and gently took her hands in his and kissed the knuckles of both hands.

"I'm sorry sweetheart. I sort of got hungry and decided to fix dinner for us both."

Rain got a slightly surprised look on her face and tipped her head back a little bit and sniffed the air. "I smell chicken-" It sounded almost like an accusation but then she looked at him and smiled. "I haven't had chicken since the last time I went to see my parents."

Modo's lips twitched in amusement before he asked. "Was it nice? The last time you saw your family."

"Yeah. Every time I show up mom fries a whole thing of chicken, makes a huge batch of potato salad, some mac and cheese and then we all load up into dad's van and we drive back to the river and have a picnic. Sometimes if mom doesn't feel like cooking then my dad will. And when he doesn't, my brother does. But no one eats his cooking. His cooking sucks so bad that I'm not even sure how he's even still alive. So instead of risking time in the hospital we buy some hot dogs and a few other things and have a weeny roast."

Modo's lips twitched again as he bit the inside of his cheek to keep himself from laughing. Rain's brother sounded like a trip. "He must have a few women cook for him sometimes."

Rain scrunched up her nose a little bit and gave him a doubtful look. "I dunno Modo. My brother is a bit of an odd duck. He couldn't keep a girlfriend to save his life so there is no way that he could have a few girls cooking for him."

"Maybe he looks pitiful when he goes to see them." Modo said helpfully and Rain got a funny look on her face as she seemed to picture her brother looking pitiful for some nameless, faceless woman. After a second or so she snorted, her lips twitching.

"I wouldn't doubt that. Storm looks pitiful no matter what he does. I think it's his secret to success. I went to work with him once when I was sick and I remember deciding to take a nap and when I woke up he had one of his hands super glued to his desk, his tie was stuck in a pencil sharpener and his fax machine had gone AWOL. It was so bad. And yet when his boss came looking for him, instead of firing him, he gave Storm a promotion."

Modo stared at her with an comical expression on his face before he snorted and quickly clapped his hands over his mouth to keep from laughing out loud. Rain's brother sounded like he had almost as many screws loose as Vinny. He also sounded a mite accident prone...

"I'm tempted to invite him to dinner with my bros sometime." Modo said after several heartbeats of silence. Rain shrugged her slender shoulders and grinned wryly.

"Well if you did, just make sure that an ambulance is standing by. And sit back and enjoy yourself."

"Oh. We would sweetheart-" Modo promised her before sombering up and asking, "How bad does your stomach hurt? Do you need some asprin? Are you going to be able to eat?"

Rain blinked at him and sighed, her earlier humor vanishing somewhat. "It doesn't hurt too bad-" She started to lie to him when he made a low angry sound in the back of his throat and grasped her hands in his again and hissed something under his breath that she couldn't quite understand then gave her a dark look before letting go of her hands and leaning in so that his face was just a hairs breath away form her own and growled.

"_Don't. Lie. To. Me_. I saw the pained look on your face when I was watching you move earlier." Rain gave him a strange look before blanking her expression and looking down at her hands, neatly folded in her lap and Modo leaned back and sighed as he tried to reign in his temper. She was trying to hide her hurt from him again. And again he found it unessesary for her to do so.

Even if it was to spare him any feelings of loathing and guilt. "I'm sorry Rain. I didn't mean to growl at you. But I need you to understand that I _know_ that you are hurting and while I appreciate the lengths you'll go to make me _feel_ better, I'm supposed to feel badly about hurting you. Now _please_, stop acting like nothing happened and let me take care of you..." Modo said in a softer tone as he stood up and looked down at her.

Rain chewed her bottom lip for a second and considered his words before tipping her head back and looking up at him. He had an expecant look on his face as he waited for her to say something. "It only hurts when I move too suddenly. I could use a few asprin. Three maybe. And something to drink."

Modo gave her a small smile. "Do you need anything else while I'm up? The TV on, a book- Dinner should be ready in a few minutes but you might want to amuse yourself until then."

Rain's lips twitched and she held up one hand and made a shadow of a puppy dog with lop sided ears on the wall behind her and said. "Woof, woof. I can amuse myself easily. Woof, woof." She flushed in the dim light and he couldn't help but think that she was the most beautiful thing that he'd ever seen before when she flushed like that.

"I'll go get your asprin and drink then." Modo said before turning and walking out of the room and stopping just in the hall way outside of the living room when he heard Rain ask,

"Was that too much I wonder?"

"Woof, woof. He probably thinks that you're loopy. Woof, woof." Modo turned around and peeked back into the room, curious to see what she was doing. And nearly laughed out loud when he saw her sitting on the couch talking to the little shadow puppet that she had made with her hand.

She had a look of consideration on her face before shrugging her slender shoulders. "Well if he does think I'm loopy, there isn't much that I can do about it. It _was_ a short trip after all."

"Woof, woof. Not a short trip. Genetic. Blame mother. Woof, woof." Modo moved away from the door shaking his head in bemusement as he walked down the hall to the bathroom and went through the medicin cabenet until he found what he was looking for then headed into the kitchen to fix his adorable woman a drink.


	13. Chapter 13

For those of you who don't know about the shadow puppet mentioned in the last chapter, I'll fill you in.

The shadow puppets name is Barking Dog, and he/she played a huge part in mine and my brother's lives when we were kids. We spent the first few years of our lives terrified of Barking Dog (cause lets face it anything that can scare us as infants can't be good) and another six or seven years after that making friends with Barking Dog.

And let me tell you, that shadow puppet had some of the _coolest_ bedtime stories.

(***********************************************************************************************************************************************************************************************************************************************************************************************************************************************************************************************************************************************************************************************************************************************************************************************************************************************************************************************************************************************************************************************)

Modo walked back into the living room several minutes later and handed Rain a glass of wine that he had fixed for her along with the three tablets in his hand. Rain looked at the glass of strawberry flavored wine and frowned a little bit before giving him a questioning look. "Wine with pills?"

Modo shrugged his broad shoulders and saying. "If your worried about mixing the alchohol with the pills then I'll make sure that you don't drink any more than what's in your glass."

Rain popped the tablets in her mouth and took a sip of the sweet wine and swallowed before saying, "I'm not worried. I'm not a heavy drinker to begin with so whatever I do drink shouldn't do anything."

"That's good to hear. For a second I was worried that I may be accidentally killing you or something." Modo said dryly as he scratched behind one of his ears. Rain giggled a little bit and shook her head as she set the glass aside.

"I think dinner should be ready right about now. I'll go make sure nothing is burnt and fix you a plate." Modo said almost awkwardly before he turned and walked out of the room again.

Rain leaned back against the couch and closed her eyes and waited for Modo to come back as she listened to the faint sounds coming from the kitchen. It occurred to her that for such a big guy he was able to move from room to room without making much noise. She wondered why that was, and had been meaning to ask him since the first time she had noticed.

But she always shied away from the subject because she felt it would dredge up something that he might not want to talk about.

Modo walked back into the room ten minutes later carrying two plates with chicken, salad, and a small bowl of soup percariously perched on the rim of the plate. He had napkins, forks and spoons, and he had found her large bottle of buttermilk ranch dressing.

He handed her one of the plates and then handed her a napkin, and silverware and then moved back a little bit and set his plate, and the salad dressing down on the coffee table a few inches behind him and then pulled it closer to the couch and then left the room again.

He came back less than a minute later carrying a wine glass, the bottle of sweet strawberry wine and set them down on the coffee table next to his plate then looked at her. She was arranging her soup bowl so that it was out of the way, setting it on the small table beside the couch where she had set her wine glass down earlier.

She unfolded her napkin and picked up her fork and be fore he could ask if she wanted any salad dressing for her salad, she dug in and quickly started to strip her chicken thigh of meat. Modo blinked in surprise and bit the inside of his cheek to keep from laughing.

Good grief, the woman must have been _starving_ to strip her chicken all the way to the bone in under three minutes. He observed her for several seconds longer before licking his lips and asking almost nervously, "Rain. Sweetheart, please tell me that you're at least chewing your food before swallowing."

Rain stopped eating for a second and looked at him and then turned a vivid shade of red, no doubt embarrassed about being seen eating like a ravenous animal. She nervously wiped her mouth with her napkin, although it was far safer to say that she was trying to hide behind it before she lowered it away from her face and licked her lips and said, "I-I'm chewing."

Modo got a relieved expression on his face. "Then you must have been really hungry."

"Well, no not really-" Rain said and upon seeing his slightly hurt expression quickly added. "But this chicken tastes _amazing_. Really, it's better than my mom's."

"Really? You like it?" He asked uncertainly.

"Like it. God I love it. It's awesome." Rain said almost excitedly. Modo flushed a little bit under his fur and shyly ducked his head for a moment then said.

"If you like it that much darlin, I'll cook for you for the rest of our lives if you want me too." He said without thinking and could have kicked himself when she went totally silent. He glanced at her and held his breath for a moment as he stared at her expression.

She had a such a shocked/curious expression on her pretty face and set her plate on the coffee table and leaned back and studied him in the dim light before asking. "Modo did you just propose to me?" Modo opened his mouth to say no, to say anything really, but no sound came out. His heart slammed against his ribs in alarm as his mind panickly chanted, _Oh god, oh god, oh god- _

Why had he done that? Why had he opened his mouth and said something so stupid? Rain probably didn't even think of him like that! What the hell was he supposed to do now? If he came right out and admitted that he was head over heels for her, she'd probably laugh at him or turn him down flat.

No wait, she wasn't that type of girl. But still he couldn't help but think this. He'd liked females before, but they always treated him like he was a bloody monster when he wanted to get serious. They were afraid of him. Refused to let him near them.

He didn't think he could survive the hurt if Rain did the same thing. "I-I... N-No. I-I meant to say that I'll cook for you again, anytime that you like."

"Oh. Okay." Rain said in a disappointed tone as she picked up her wine glass and lifted it to her lips and studied him as she downed the pinkish liquid.


	14. Chapter 14

As soon as they were done eating dinner, Modo gathered up the dishes and all but ran from the room. Conveniently leaving Rain alone in the room with the open bottle of her favorite wine which Modo had forgotten to grab on his way out of the room.

She stared at it for a second then leaned forward and grabbed the bottle up off of the table and lifted it up to her lips and took a long drink. She figured that it would take Modo ten to fifteen minutes to do the dishes and put the rest of the food up. Which meant that she had ten to fifteen minutes to down as much wine as she could so that she could get nice and buzzed.

Ten minutes later she held the bottle up in front of her face and bit back the urge to giggle uncontrolably. She had drank about a third of the wine in the bottle, leaving less than a quarter left, and she could already feel the effects the alchohol was having on her system. Her thoughts were muddled, her skin felt overly warm and she had the insane urge to curl up against something soft and rub herself against it until she passed out.

She hiccuped and leaned forward and set the bottle down in the same exact spot it had been in before and had just sat back when Modo walked back into the room. "Okay. Dishes are washed and the left overs are in the fridge. What do you need me to do now? Do you want to listen to some music? Watch TV?"

Rain made a humming sound and looked at him. "Music. Something soft and slow." She said in a husky tone.

Modo smiled at her and bowed at the waist and walked across the room to her sterio and shifted through her CD's until he found some Eric Clapton, Phil Collins, and a few jazz CD's and put on Phil Collins and turned the volume low and then walked back over to the couch and sat down next to her and slipped an arm around her slender shoulders and pulled her back against his side so that she was in a semi reclining position as One more Night started playing.

Rain snuggled up against him and played with his the fingers on his flesh hand before saying, "I love this song. It's so sweet yet at the same time so sad."

"It is?" Modo asked stupidly, he hadn't really been paying attention to the lyrics of the song. He'd been focusing on the nervous fluttering feeling in the pit of his stomach caused by Rain playing with his fingers.

"Yes. Haven't you ever listened to the lyrics?"

Modo got quiet and listened for a moment.

_I've been sitting here so long_

_Wasting time, just staring at the phone_

_And I was wondering if I should call you_

_Then I thought maybe your not alone._

_Please give me one more night, give me one more night_

_Oh one more night, cos I can't wait forever-_

"Your right-" Modo said after a moment or so of silence. "It is very sweet."

"And sad." Rain repeated. Modo's lips curved up in a small smile.

"Yes. It's sad too-" He admitted before asking, "What is the song about?" As if he didn't already know. Rain tipped her head back and looked at him for a moment, her turquoise eyes studying him in the dim light before she answered.

"Unrequited love. Nothing in the world is both as _bitter sweet_ and _sad_ as unrequited love." She sounded like she knew a thing or two about unreuited love and Modo couldn't help but wonder what sort of bastard would throw away a chance at being with her. And as soon as that thought crossed his mind, he ruthlessly pushed it aside, deeming it stupid to think such things.

Besides, someone elses loss was his gain. Still...he couldn't help feeling a mite curious about the person who had seemingly broken her heart.

Which was why he asked her about him. Rain looked away and played with his fingers a little more and Modo got the impression that she didn't want to talk about her unrequited love and decided it was probably for the best that she didn't answer his question.

"I'm sorry I asked Rain, you don't have to tell me."

"I wasn't going too since I don't like talking about it..." Rain said before shrugging his arm away and shifting so that she was sitting a little way's away from him. Modo watched her slow cautious movements for a moment and felt a painful ache in the center of his chest and was about to beg her not to be upset with him for being curious when she turned herself to face him and practically crawled into his lap.

He stiffened and went totally still and said nothing as she settled herself in his lap and leaned against him and said, "Modo, have you ever wanted to do something but were afraid that the person you like might dislike you for it?"

Modo blinked and mulled over her words before slowly nodding his head. "That's good. Cause there is something I've been wanting to do with you for a while now, and I'm kind of shy about it-"

"W-What is it?" Modo rasped in a slightly strained tone of voice as he gripped the arm of the chair in his mechanical hand and tried to control his breathing as Rain straddled his hips and put her small hands against his chest and leaned in and very softly, and gently pressed her lips against his own.

Modo's one eye widened a bit in shock and surprise as his heart slammed against his ribs in excitment and he found himself groaning as he lifted his arms and wrapped them around her and pulled her closer to him so that he could enjoy the slight contact a little longer as she licked along his bottom lip. He parted his lips for her and made a funny sound in the back of his throat as she deepened the kiss before abruptly breaking the kiss and burying her face against his throat and gave a shakey sounding laugh.

"Wh-What's wrong?" Modo asked in a breathless tone as he rubbed her back. He wasn't altogether sure what had gotten into his girl, but he wasn't going to complain about the display of affection. Not when he _longed_ for it so damn much.

"I want more... God help me, Modo but I want so much more than just a kiss." Modo's hands stilled against her back for a moment as his mind registered what she was saying. His heart leapt up into his throat and he took a shuddering breath as he tangled his fingers in her silken hair and made her look at him then said seriously,

"I want that too but I'm not sure if you understand what asking for more with me would mean for you."

"Then tell me."

Modo studied her face for a moment then said very softly, "Would you be mine? Mine and mine alone? My woman, my friend, my lover, _and_ my mate-" Rain got a stunned look on her pretty face and after a second or so opened her mouth to say something but was quickly silenced when Modo put his finger tips against her lips and cut her off.

"Don't say anything unless you can answer me honestly, Rain. This isn't something that one enters into on the spur of the moment. I need you to think carefully about the_ full_ ramifications of what I'm saying. Because if you say yes and mean it, there will be _no_ going back. _No_ escaping me. I will _protect_ and _keep_ you until the day you die. And if the day comes where you're taken from me- I'll follow you, where ever you are." He said in a fierce tone as he cupped her right cheek in his hand.

Rain stared at him for a second before nodding her head in understanding then said softly. "I can do that." And nearly jumped out of her skin when a loud growl filled the air a second before one of Modo's arms wrapped around her and pulled her tightly against him while his other arm slipped under her bottom and he stood up.

She had given her permission without hesitation or deceit. He had heard the conviction in her voice, felt the truth in her words and now-

Now she was his.

He couldn't have been happier. Or more over joyed.

It felt like he had waited forever just to hear those sweet, torturous words. And while it wasn't exactly the same as a declaration of love, he had the rest of his life to make her love him if she didn't already. "Modo? What are you doing?" Rain asked him in a curious tone, tearing him from his thoughts.

"I'm taking you to bed."

"Oh... Do you know where my room is?"

"No." Modo growled in irritation as he looked down the hall way at the four closed doors, wondering which one was hers and if he would have to impovise. He didn't want too. Rain was a good girl and deserved to have her man make love to her in her bed, not against a wall or something.

Rain giggled and pointed to the first door and he looked down at her for a second with an embarrassed look on his face before quickly clearing his throat and making his way over to the door and kicking it open and stepped inside and looked around for a second before locating the bed.


	15. Chapter 15

Modo kicked the door closed behind him without so much as breaking stride as he carried Rain over to her bed and laid her down on the soft cotton covers while sealing his lips over hers in a hungry kiss. Rain gripped his shoulders and moaned as his tongue brushed up against hers.

He broke the kiss and rained small kisses down on her cheeks, the tip of her nose, her eye lids- Then sought her lips again as he slowly hiked her shirt up over her stomach and lightly used his thumb to stroke the skin along her ribs. Rain pulled back a little bit and gave a breathy giggle as he nuzzled the under side of her jaw before gently biting her neck.

She gave a soft cry of pleasure and arched up off of the bed and rubbed herself against him.

He kissed the spot on her neck that he had bitten, then trailed little open mouth kisses along every inch of skin he exposed before slipping an arm under her back and lifted her hips up off of the mattress while he deftly unfastened her pants, then tugged them down her long slender legs.

Then reached under her again and pulled her against his chest and sat back on his heels so that he could pull her shirt up over her head.

He took his time, helping her slip her her arms out of the sleeves so that he wouldn't hurt her stomach or her ribs and dropped the shirt over the side of the bed then lowered her back onto the bed so that he could look at her.

The sight of Rain's half exposed body drove the breath from his lungs. She was simply too beautiful for words.

The sight of her flushed skin, her kiss swollen lips, the slight look of embarrassment that crossed her pretty face before she lifted her arms to try and cover her breasts. He grasped her wrists and pinned them against the bed on either side of her shoulders and growled. "No hiding."

Hiding wasn't permitted between mates.

He leaned down and ran his tongue along the swell of her right breast causing her to gasp and squirm under him and try to free her hands. Modo chuckled. She was so impatient. It was cute.

He kissed her lips again as he let go of her wrists so that he could run his hands along her legs. Starting at the heels of her feet, sliding up her calves to her thighs. Her skin was so soft. So smooth.

Like silk.

It had such a pleasant feel to it that he couldn't wait to strip her the rest of the way and rub himself against her like an overgrown cat.

Rain reached up and ran her hands along his arms. Feeling the straining muscles in his flesh arm and exploring the smooth cool metal of his other arm and gripped his shoulders as he scrapped his teeth along the slender calumn of her throat, driving the breath from her lungs.

She let her head fall back onto the mattress and dug her finger nails into his shoulders and whimpered as he settled his hips between her legs and ground himself against her. _Oh god-_ She thought as she lifted her head slightly to look down at where his body was pression against her. She could feel his hard legnth straining against the fly of his jeans. He was huge!

Or at least he felt like he was. Was he really going to slid that inside of her? She felt a momentary flair of panic and looked at his face. He was staring at her with an unfathomable expression on his face and cupped her cheeks in his hands and ran his thubs along her lower lip. "Scared?"

"Not really. And at the same time a little bit." She said in an apologetic tone. He gave her a little bit of a strained smile and kissed her mouth. Her concern was understandable. But unnecessary. He knew from prior experience that their bodies would fit together nicely.

He pulled back with a soft moan. "Don't worry about it any sweetheart. We'll fit together just fine."

"W-We will?"

Modo made a humming sound as he leaned down and gently tugged the straps of her bra down her slender shoulders and kissed her collar bone, and the swell of her right breast as he cupped her breasts in his hands and lightly ran his thumbs over her lace covered nipples. Rain moaned at the feel of the scratchy lace rubbing against her nipples as Modo caressed them.

It felt so good.

But not as good as Modo's mouth felt when he sucked one of her nipples into his mouth, causing her to cry out and sob as she lifted her hands to grip his shoulders and tried to pull him closer.

Modo didn't dare lean into her than he already was. He was worried he'd crush her or at the very least hurt her bruised stomach. But he wanted too. He wanted to settle his larger body on top of hers and_ feel_ her skin to skin as he drove himself into her tight heat.

He lifted his head a little bit to look at her face, noting the blissful expression on her face in satisfaction before turning his attention to her other breast and teasing it in the same way before kissing his way lower.

Rain squirmed under his mouth and nearly came out of her skin when she felt his rough, moist tongue slip inside of her belly button causing a shiver to run down her spine as he traced little designs on her stomach with his tongue.

"Ah! M-Modo!"

He lifted his head a little bit and looked at her again and smirked. Just a little bit longer- Just a little bit longer and he'd have her right where he wanted too.


	16. Chapter 16

Or at least he should have had her right where he wanted her.

It was the damndest thing.

Here he had been in the middle of undressing her, worshiping her like the goddess she was, preparing to mate with her and she fell asleep. He blinked his one eye again and mentally went over what had happened with Rain for what must have been the hundredth time in the past hour since she had fallen asleep on him.

Natrually he'd been stunned. And shocked.

And maybe just a little bit _pissed_ due to the blow his ego had taken. He'd mentally back tracked over the events of the evening and had recalled that he'd given her a few pain pills and let her drink wine with them. Was that why she had fallen asleep? He'd wondered as he left the room to read the lable on the pill bottle.

It had yeilded no answers which left him curious about if the wine she'd drank had maybe caused her to pass out so suddenly. Walking down the hallway he stepped into the living room and zero'd in on the wine bottle and could already see in the faint light that there was only a little bit left.

_Don't tell me- _Modo thought as he walked over to the coffee table where the almost empty bottle was and picked it up and held it up in front of his face and swore.

_Goddamn it._

Rain had been drunk. And he'd more or less taken advantage of her in her inebreated state. He made a deep rumbling growling sound in the back of his throat and set the bottle down then turned on his heel and walked out of the room. He stopped by the dining room and grabbed a red velvet antique wing backed chair from the table.

And carried it into the bedroom when he went back and set it down two feet from the foot of the bed then stripped off his shirt and hung it on the back of the chair and then sat down and crossed his legs as he propped his chin up on the back of his hand and waited.

The tip of his tail twitching slightly in annoyance.

He must have sat there for close to four or five hours, maybe more, the darkness of the bedroom gradually lightening as the sun came up. He blinked his one eye tiredly and mentally noted the time as Rain moaned and started to stir a little bit on the bed.

His lips curved up in a sadistic smile as he toyed with the ugre to run and get some pots and bang them together to see how bad her hangover was, but inevitably he pushed the urge aside and blanked his expression as she stirred a little more then finally opened her eyes.

She groaned and pushed herself upright a little bit and looked around, her mind not yet registering her state of semi nakedness or his presence in the room. She sat upright on her bed and finally noticed him sitting there staring at her. She frowned a little bit and croaked, "Modo?"

He gave her a sunny smile that was completely at odds with his mood. "Hello _lover_. Sleep well?" He asked, putting emphasis on the word lover to see how she would react to being called his lover.

She didn't react. Though she did frown again. Just a little bit before asking, "Did we-"

He nodded his head knowing that admitting to going all the way with her when he hadn't was considered not only a lie but psychological warfare. And because of how things had gone down he was feeling a mite vindicated about going this route despite knowing that it could damage everything beyond repair.

"Did you-" Rain asked hesitantly as she did this weird motion with her hands that he found both _adorable_ and _arousing _as he slowly nodded his head again.

She flushed a little bit and shifted to climb off of the bed when he crooked a finger at her, silently beckoning her to come close to him. Rain hesititated for a moment then crawled on her hands and knees to the foot of the bed and jumped a little bit when his tail wrapped around her slender waist and lifted her up off of the bed and settled her astride his lap so that he could begin phase two of her punishiment for falling asleep on him.

As soon as he had her settled in his lap their skin would allow and tangled his fingers in her thick dark hair and nuzzled her shoulder. Rain shuddered and let out a breathy sound of contentment that made his blood sizzle.

"You sound happy-" He said gently before kissing the side of her neck and carefully untangling his fingers from her hair so that he could grip her hips and rock her against the bulge straining against his fly. She gasped at the sensation he created and grabbed onto his shoulders as he tipped her back a little bit and kissed her collar bone and asked in a husky rough tone, "Mind if I have a repeat preformance?"


	17. Chapter 17

Rain didn't even have time to register Modo's words before he stood up, taking her with him, his mouth covering hers.

Stopping any objections that she may have made with a hungry kiss that stirred her blood so much that she didn't notice being toppled onto the bed with Modo's heavy weight pressing down on her.

His body pressed flush with her own while he slid his hands down her long slender legs and wrapped them around his hips so that he could grind himself against her as he lifted his head just enough to hear her gasp of pleasure as she gripped his biceps and dug her nails into his flesh arm.

He growled low in the back of his throat and attacked the hollow of her shoulder, licking, nipping and sucking until she was begging him to do more. He kissed her collar bone, skimmed his lips lower and sucked one of her nipples into his mouth causing her to give a hoarse cry and wrap her arms around his neck and hold him in place.

He bit her, causing her to jump and yelp despite the fact that he hadn't hurt her, merely startled her. His teeth were sharper than she recalled. Her hands slipped from the back of his head to the nape of his neck, holding him more loosely than before as he lifted his head so that he could pay the same attention to her other breast while he ground himself against her _hard_.

She moaned and lifted her hips up to rub against him. Oh god she could feel him! His length was as hard as a rock, the bulge pressed against the crotch of her panties hard enough to leave her feeling bruised.

She gasped and arched her back as he kissed his way from her breast, up to her mouth and claimed her lips in a toe curling kiss before he made a frustrated sound and pulled back from her. She blinked, feeling him there one second then gone the next. She blinked again and shivered a little bit, the warmth radiating from Modo's body was gone.

Hell Modo himself was _gone_.

_What the hell?_ Rain wondered as she slowly pushed herself up right and looked around as Modo peeked back into the room from the open door. "You should probably get dressed darlin." Then disappeared again.

Leaving Rain alone on her bed trying to cool the liquid fire in her blood before getting up to pull on some clothes. Once she was done dressing she combed and pulled her hair back into a ponytail and sighed and walked out of the bedroom in search of Modo.

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Modo splashed some cold water on his face and rubbed it into his fur until his face was soaked. God in heaven but he needed to get his hormones under control. But fuck, Rain was so damn tempting. Even now when he was a mite pissed at her for how things had gone last night, he couldn't seem to cool the fever in his blood.

He made another frustrated sound in the back of his throat and splashed some more water on his face before turning off the tap while he reached out and grabbed the hand towel hanging on a bar attached to the wall next to him and used it to pat his face semi dry before hanging it back in place.

And then walked over to the door and opened it so that he could go see if Rain was dressed yet when he caught sight of her disappearing into the kitchen.

_Hn. I guess she's dressed now after all. _Modo thought gloomily. He'd sort of wanted to see her in her semi naked state at least _once_ more.


	18. Chapter 18

Rain was in the kitchen, starting to pull out a pan while the carton of eggs and packet of bacon sat on the counter awaiting her attention as Modo peeked in and watched her move around for a moment.

While he had been in the bathroom he had been silently deliberating with himself on if he should just come clean about how nothing had happened? Or if he should pull her stings just a little bit more?

Now that he was thinking a mite clearer he felt telling her the truth would work in his favor, but his male pride was still stinging from what she had done the night before. He sighed and started to move away from the doorway when Rain turned her head and looked at him, effectively stopping his escape.

"H-Hi." Modo said awkwardly.

Rain smiled at him and offered a shy sounding, "Hi." right back at him then waved him into the kitchen. _Well there goes my good intentions-_ Modo thought as he came into the room, his one eye drinking in certain details. Like how pretty Rain looked with her hair pulled back into a braid. And what she was wearing...

A black, short sleeved D.A.R.E tee-shirt that showed the curves of her breasts off _wonderfully_. Just like the denim cut off shorts she was wearing showed off her long shapely legs and bottom to perfection.

"Would you like some coffee?" Rain asked, probably in an effort to break the strange silence stretching out between them.

Modo nodded his head mutely and slipped into the room, and sat on the edge of the counter opposite of the food that she had laid out to fix. While she heated up the pan on the stove and pulled a can out of one of the cabinets overhead and grabbed a coffee mug.

He watched her measure out two spoonfuls of something black that smelled like coffee and put it in the mug then asked. "How do you like yours? Black? Sugar? Cream?"

Modo's ears twitched slightly as his mind slowly but surely started to slide right into the gutter. Chist how did she do that? Make even the smallest, non-dirty words sound as if they needed to be stricken from the human vocabulary?

He knew she was talking about the drink. Truly he did.

But some part of his mind was envisioning a porno setting with silly music. Rain laying naked on a bed of rose petals, just waiting for him to put her lovely body to use. He made a strained sound and put a hand up so that his palm was against his face and muttered. "Rain, darlin, please never say the words 'sugar' and 'cream' in the same sentence again. I don't think my heart can take it."

Rain turned around and looked at him with a confused look on her pretty face. Okay, that had gone way, _way_ over her head.

"Then I'll just hand the mug to you as it is and you can fix it the way you want." Rain said in a disgruntled tone as she positioned the cup under the faucet and turned on the tap for a moment, then turned it back off and held the cup out to him as he groaned.

He took it from her and set it on the counter next to his hip and then reached out and grasped her wrist and kept her from turning away from him by giving her a quick kiss on the lips before letting her go back to what she was doing since it required a majority of her attention.

Other wise she would set fire to her kitchen.

Rain had just cracked a three eggs into the pan when they both heard a knock down the hall from the kitchen and looked at each other. "Are you expecting anyone darlin?" Modo asked, his gaze searching her own. Rain slowly shook her head no. And he got off of the counter and armed the laser blaster in his metal arm and slowly made his way to the front door as another, louder knock sounded this time.

Stopping before the door Modo had to grapple with his territorial instincts for a moment. On one hand he knew that whoever was knocking must be either one of his bros or human and _had_ a reason for coming to Rains place.

And on the other hand...this was the home of his mate and he felt the deeply ingrained instinct to defend it to the death. Reaching out Modo grasped the door knob and twisted it open and felt a push against the wood from the outside and leveled his weapon as someone stepped in and- _Jesus H Christ!_ Was that his bros?

Throttle and Vinny filled the doorway as Throttle's hand coming up automatically to push Modo's weapon up and away from them. "Whoa, easy big guy-" The tawny colored male said, his tone deceptively light.

Modo made a distressed sound and face palmed before dropping his hand and hissing, "_What the fuck-_ I could have shot you two!"

Throttle gave him an unamused look as he stepped further into Rain's home and looked around. "You didn't come home last night. Nor did you call." He sounded a mite pissed at Modo for not calling to let them know he was fine, but honestly Modo didn't give a damn.

He wasn't a child after all.

"I called Charley." Modo said as Throttle contined to look around a bit. Throttle made a humming sound then turned to glare at him and muttered darkly.

"Yeah well, she didn't divulge any _real_ info and we couldn't torture her... I mean she's one of our own goddammit! Torturing one of our own is simply out of the question."

"And yet your here... Torturing me. How ironic." Modo said dryly as he put his gun away. Vinny laughed nervously as Throttle shot him another glare that had Modo on the verge of squirming as Rain peeked out of the kitchen and called out.

"Modo? Is everything okay?"

All three martians turned towards the sound of the human woman's voice a second before Throttle started down the hall, alarming Modo somewhat since his bro wasn't acting like his usual self. He started after his leader, intending to stop him from... God he had no idea what he was planning but for some reason Trottle was scaring him.

Despite the fact that he knew Throttle wasn't the type to lay his hands on a lady or to lash out needlessly- He still couldn't help feeling honest to god _weak-in-the-knees_ scared for Rain's well being.

He raced down the hall behind Throttle and was almost upon him when he felt something wrap around one of his wrists and turned to look and see what it was and saw Vinny looking up at him and blinked. Oh right, in his haste to stop Throttle he'd forgotten that Vinny was even there.

He heard the soft drone of voices and knew that Throttle had reached the kitchen and was about to jerk his arm free when Vinny said softly, "Calm down. He didn't come here to cause trouble. He was just worried about you two since Charley said that something happened yesterday."

Modo blinked at him and opened his mouth to ask him what the hell he was talking about when it occurred to him that Charley must have told them about the 'accident' of his metal arm slamming into Rain's stomach. Of course Charley didn't know the specifics of the accident that he had mentioned to her when he had called.

So when she had mentioned it to Throttle and Vinny they had probably raced over expecting the worst.

He closed his mouth and moved to the side a little bit as Vinny brushed by him and thought, _Christ it's no wonder Throttle wasn't acting_ _like himself._

He was likely _furious_ that something had happened under their watch.


	19. Chapter 19

Throttle was so pissed that his fur had stood on end for over an hour when he and Vinny had gone to the garage to see if Modo was there only to find that, A) He wasn't there. _Anywhere_. B) He had called Charley last night and told her that he had been in an accident of some kind. And then there was C) Charley hadn't been _able_ to tell- or simply not _willing_ to tell them what had happened.

Which had pissed him off greatly. So he and Vinny had left the garage to find their older brother and without any clues on where to start, it had taken Throttle at least forty five minutes to calm down enough to even think of looking for Modo at Rain's place.

And that was only after they had passed his bike parked outside on the curb...three times.

Throttle entered the room where he detected the most sound and could looked towards the stove where he saw Rain standing with her back to him. Cooking something for herself and his_ idiot_ older brother no less.

"Modo who was at the door?" Rain asked curiously without looking away from her task. Allowing Throttle to sneak up behind her and place one of his hands lightly on her hip as she opened a cabinet and started to reach up to get something, stopping her cold as he reached over her head and picked up a little plastic spice shaker and pressed it into her hand.

She twisted her head around to look at him, her expression like that of a deer caught in the headlights as she stared at him wide eyed. "T-Throttle?"

"Morn'in Miss Rain." He said in an amused rumbling tone as he moved back away from her as Modo and Vinny finally walked in. She looked towards the door at Modo who gave her a slightly strained helpless look as he shrugged his shoulders.

"I think my bros decided to stop by and invite themselves to breakfast." Modo said as he shot Throttle a glare as he made himself comfortable on the counter right behind Rain. Trapping her more or less between his legs and the stove.

_The bastard. _

Rain gave Modo an startled look for a moment then wiped her hands on her shorts and started to move away from the stove, towards the fridge to get more stuff out when Throttle stopped her with a light touch of his gloved hand against her shoulder before saying, "we've already eaten this morning but if you don't mind, we'd like to sit with you."

"_O-Oh._ Oh no, that's fine. Would you guys like coffee or something?" Rain asked and Modo made a whimpering sound.

"Rain darlin, _please_ remember what I said earlier about certain words." Modo said as he partially hid his face behind his hands when both Vinny and Throttle looked at him oddly.

There was _no way_ he was going to let them see him blush. _No. Way. _

"I think I see Modo's ears turning red-" Vinny said in a teasing tone as Throttle made a snorting sound and asked Rain.

"What word is Modo talkin about?"

"I have no idea. When I was making him coffee earlier all I asked was if he took sugar or cream."

_"Rain!"_ Modo dropped his hands away from his face and fairly shouted, startling her so badly that she not only jumped. But dropped the spatula she'd had in her hand too.

Throttle shot him a dirty look and used his tail to pick up the cooking utensil.

Then climbed down off of the counter and moved over to the sink and washed the spatula then used the hand towel to dry it off and hand it back to Rain, then climbed back onto the counter and made himself comfortable as Rain muttered a soft 'thank you' then resumed cooking.

What the hell had Modo shouted at her for? Rain wondered as she flipped the eggs and bacon in the pan. Her good mood from earlier, slowly dwindling to nothing when she heard Throttle ask no one in particular, "So what was Charley talking about when she said that you had been in an accident last night?"

Turning around she looked at Modo and tried to think. He hadn't been in an accident. Had he? Sure he had shown up on her doorstep yesterday in a mood but he hadn't looked really upset or bothered.

Just..._annoyed_. Though she had had no idea why.

Modo crossed his arms over his chest and gave his brother a bored look as Rain transferred the food that she'd been cooking to a pair of plates then picked up the pan to put it in the sink and found it difficult to breathe when he stomach gave a sudden sharp jolt.

She dropped the pan and gasped as she doubled over and for a moment forgot that there were three people other than herself in the kitchen. Throttle jumped down off of the counter and scooped her up as the pan hit the floor, splattering his boots and pants legs with scalding grease as Modo bristled and practically leapt across the room and took Rain from him.

"Rain! Hey!" Modo said in a panicked tone as he set her on the counter and used one arm to hold her upright while he patted her cheek lightly with the other. "Come one sweetheart, don't black out on me now. Tell me how bad it hurts."

Rain's eyes fluttered open for a second as she shuttered and buried her face against his chest and groaned. "Owww..."

"Darlin?"

"I'm okay, Modo. I just shouldn't have tried picking up that pan when my stomach is bugging me."

Modo's ears flattened against his head and his face took on a guilty look to it a second before he asked, "How bad does it hurt?"

"I blacked out and couldn't breathe for a second. That alone should tell you how much it hurts." Rain said in wry amusement as he brushed her bangs back from her face.

"I'm sorry sweetheart... If I were more careful you wouldn't have-" A throat clearing a few feet away stopped Modo's words in his throat and made both he and Rain look towards the source of the sound where they found Throttle leaning back against the fridge, looking interested in every little word being said.

His scarlet eyes glowing over the top of his green shades. "If you had been more careful, Rain wouldn't have what?" Throttle asked with a slight bite to his tone.

Modo's ears drooped and he looked like he was going to be sick.

_Crap_. How could he have forgotten that his brothers were in the room?


	20. Chapter 20

"_Sooo_... How'd this happen again?" Throttle asked as he lightly probed the purple, black and blue area that spread a little across Rain's stomach and a bit along the side of her ribs with his fingertips while Vinny held Modo in a headlock in the hall way.

Rain twitched and bit her bottom lip when he pressed down a little too hard on the tender skin, drawing the mouse's scarlet eyes to her face over the rims of his shades for a moment before he muttered a soft apology for hurting her, then continued to probe the wound with his fingertips.

_Gentler_ this time since it seemed to cause her so much discomfort.

Again Rain twitched and tried to shift away from him.

Causing Throttle to sigh and snake his tail around her waist to keep her from moving away from him any further as Modo let out a loud threatening growl.

Throttle ignored his brother's growl and continued to lightly probe the discolored skin until he was satisfied that there were no internal injuries then pulled Rain's shirt back down into place and put his hand over the wound.

His fingers splayed wide hoping that the warmth from his hand might help Rain with some of the soreness as he spoke. "Since no one has deemed fit to answer my earlier question- then how about I ask if Rain has gone to the hospital to be checked out yet? Think someone can answer that?"

Modo didn't growl this time. He just went eerily still and looked pitiful. Throttle made a humming sound and then scooped Rain up off of the counter and asked. "So that's a no then?"

Modo's ears drooped and his brother made a funny frustrated/strained sound in the back of his throat and started out of the kitchen with Rain still in his arms.

Vinny released Modo from the choke hold that had been restraining him up until then, and headed into the living room and set his sister-in-law down on the couch as Modo came tearing into the room looking like he wanted to hurt someone.

Throttle sat down on the coffee table across from her and turned his head just enough to glare at the grey furred giant as he looked over Rain then quickly backed out of the room and disappeared without a word. Rain blinked at Modo's odd behavior and looked at Throttle with a curious expression on her face.

"What was that about?" She asked, wondering why Modo had torn out of the room like he had when all Throttle had done was look at him.

Throttle glanced at her and gave a small _pleasant_ smile. "I have no idea-" He was lying to her. She could tell. His voice was deceptively calm but his body was tense. "How did the bruise happen again?" Throttle tried asking again, hoping that he wouldn't be ignored this time.

Rain opened her mouth to tell him when Modo came back into the room, and prowled like a caged tiger over to her and grasped her hand in one of his and lifted it so that it was palm out and dropped some pills into her hand and growled. "Take those." Then turned and left the room again.

Leaving her with Throttle. Wondering what the hell Modo was doing and where Vinny had disappeared off too.

She looked down at the pills in her hand as Throttle shifted his body side ways a bit, and dug something out of one of the pouches on his gun belt, then sat up straight again and said, "I take it that _not_ going to the hospital was your idea." As he uncorked a small, glittery flask that he held in his hands.

His tone was niether accusing nor terribly happy sounding to her ears.

Which may be why she hesitated more than a second when he held the flask out to her with one hand while he propped himself up with his other. His elbow resting on his thigh as he studied her while making sure to keep his expression carefully blank as she looked first at him, then at the flask, then longingly at the door.

Silly woman.

Did she really think that he'd take his anger out on her? Modo could take it. Hell he even sort of deserved it for letting her come to harm then doing nothing to treat the wound.

But her- Throttle had never raised his hand to a woman before in his life. And he didn't plan to make a habit of it now.

But that didn't mean that he couldn't make her squirm while his brothers hid themselves in an effort to stay out of his way.

"Here, you can drink this while you take your pills." He said as he continued to wait for her to take the flask from his hand. She looked back at him and made a whimpering sound, as if she expected somethign horrible to happen the second her hand was within grabbing distance of his own, and took the flask and studied it for a second then asked.

"What's in it?"

"Water from our planet. It has a little bit of a bite to it, but if you can hold down whiskey then this shouldn't bother you any." He said as he waited for her to take the pills. He was assuming that they were pain meds which was part of the reason why he had handed over his flask of precious martian water.

The stuff had a bite to it because of the healing properies it held within it.

Everyone and their mother knew that a few sips of martian water could knit together freshly broken bones and regrow sinew and muscle lost in explosions. Not to mention what it could do for those mortally wounded.

So handing it over to her so that she could take the pain meds was no big deal to him.

Especially since a new water source on Mars had been found several months ago, and Stoker had been sending them some of the water by the barrel just to make sure that they didn't run out since they were still going head to head with Limberger.

He saw Rain wince a bit, obviously thinking that the water would have some more whiskey like traits aside from the slight burn- And felt his lips twitch in amusement as he watched her struggle with her own rationality and curiousity.

Finally curiousity won out and she popped a pill and took a small sip of the water and he almost laughed out loud when her hair stood straight up and she started caughing.

_Ah... _He felt better now that someone had fallen prey to his tyranny.

He was just sorry that Rain had been the one to suffer.


	21. Chapter 21

"Oh my god what is this stuff?" Rain asked in a raspy tone as she scrunched up her face.

Throttle had said that it had a bite to it... Like whiskey. But this didn't taste anything like whiskey. It burned like acid going down. So much so that her eyes were tearing up and she couldn't stop herself from coughing as it burned it's way all the way down to her stomach.

Throttle chuckled and took the flask from her hands and put the lid back on and tucked it back in it's pouch as he sat back on the couch. "Don't insult the stuff Rain, darlin. Me, Modo and Vinny grew up on it. It's why we're so big and strong today."

"Are you sure that your not just big, strong and delusional? And besides I thought milk was supposed to help a person grow?" Rain asked. Across the room Throttle heard Vinny made an nearly inaudible, "Geh" sound of disgust before he quickly headed for the living room door.

Earning a small glance from Rain, Throttle and Modo.

"What's his problem?" Rain asked curiously as both Modo and Throttle made strange half growling sounds.

The problem was that Rain had mentioned milk, which in turn made them think of being breast fed by their mother as infants on mars- And frankly they didn't want to talk about their mother's breasts. It was weird and traumatizing to do so. Hell, even being reminded of the fact that their mother had breasts was traumatizing to them.

And god knew they didn't like thinking about much when they were...what was it called by earth males? Catting around? Not that they were catting anything. They were merely taking care of family.

Modo sat down carefully next to Rain and put an arm around her shoulders and drew her closer to him. "I'm not hurting you am I?" He asked as she all but flopped over sideways and lay there with her shoulder jammed up against his side.

She looked up at him and blinked, before nodding her head slightly. She was fine. A tad bit uncomfortable due to her position but well...that couldn't really be helped at the moment. Besides, Modo was so warm that she was loath to say anything that could cause her to be moved.

Burying her face against his fur, she breathed deep for several seconds. Loving the way Modo's fur smelled of dark spices.

"R-Rain?" Modo squeaked in shock, jumping slightly in his seat as his face heated up under his fur. Was Rain sniffing him? Here? Now? In front of his younger brother?

Throttle watched the two, admiring the way Modo's tail was tying itself in some impossible knots- showing Throttle just how _bashful_ his older brother was feeling at the moment. Deciding to joke around a bit, Throttle crossed his legs and leaned back a bit where he was sitting and asked, "You two make such a cute couple. So when is the wedding?"

Rain stiffened and lifted her head a bit to look at Throttle while Modo's eye widened to the point of a saucer. Modo started to fidget with his gloves, then noticed that his tail was in knots and started to try untying them before he lost the blood flow to his tail. "W-Wedding?" Rain stammered, her face pale.

Her reaction startling Throttle somewhat. "What wedding? Who said anything about a wedding?" She asked in an alarmed tone that had both brothers looking at her oddly.

"Well, you do want to settle down with Modo, don't you?" Throttle asked curiously. Trying hard not to sound offended on his brother's behalf.

"_O-Oh_. I've never really thought about settling down actually-" Rain said as she curled her fingers in Modo's smokey grey fur for a moment. "My choice in no way reflects badly on Modo, Throttle. I care for him a lot. I just never really thought about marriage because of some family issues that could sort of ruin everything later on down the line."

"Issues like?" Modo asked, trying to keep his tone deceptively light. But he couldn't hide his ire. His mind playing over everything that had happened since he had met her. Every moment. Every second. It hurt him to think that all she wanted from him was a lover and nothing more but some part of his mind was nagging at him that he was wrong about things.

She must have a good reason not to consider marriage.

"My mom has so many mental issues that she's never really been _all_ there. For example, when I got sick as a kid- instead of mom taking care of me by fixing soup and stuff. She instead takes a pillow and tries to suffocate me. Because she thinks it's the right way to take care of her kids. That she isn't hurting me by depriving me of air. And Storm, god, don't get me started about my brother." Rain said as she buried her face against Modo's side, not wanting to talk about her family or weddings any further.


	22. Chapter 22

"I'm sorry. I didn't know that your family had such issues." Throttle said, now feeling bad for mentioning wedding his older brother as he cast Modo a withering glare as if to say, _'Dude, what the hell? A little warning next time.' _As Modo finished untying the knots in his tail and folded his hands neatly in his lap as Rain haistily tried to assure Throttle that it was okay.

After all it wasn't like it was his fault her mother was like the joker from the latest Batman movie.

"Oh no, it's okay- I just-" Just didn't want to think about a future that she may never have. Not when she had a seventy percent chance of becoming like her mother before the turned thirty. And then there was her future children... They carried an extremely high risk of being born mentally ill. And that wouldn't be fair to whoever she settled down with.

Which was part of the reason she stayed single and didn't date.

She didn't want to do anything that would bind her to another person and them put them through hell like her mother had with her father. But it seemed like she had made a miscalculation with Modo. Or perhaps her need for some sense of normalcy had finally gotten the better of her, she didn't know. All she knew was that she now felt the intense need to put as much space between herself and Modo.

Hopefully before she wound up breaking his heart.

Pushing herself slowly up and away from Modo she looked down at her lap and said in as calm a tone as she could muster, "I'm sorry to cut the visit guys, but I've got stuff to do today-"

"But your not going to work today because of the bruise. Remember?" Modo said with a scowl as he realized what she was trying to do. Throttle must have relized it too if the dark look on his face was any indication at all.

Rain looked up at him with a deasperate look on her face that just about broke his heart before she looked away again. _Dammit_, he had not searched entire galaxies for her just to let her slip through his fingers! Martians mated for life!

Once one found his or her mate the two could never be seperated. Not even by death.

They were always together.

But Modo knew that pressing his luck with Rain would be bad for their relationship. Especially when she had hang ups about her family. So for the time being he'd stratigically retreat and give her a little time since for the moment that was all that she was asking for.

Glancing at Throttle, he made this strange motion with his fingers and a moment later Throttle was on his feet stretching and yawning like he needed a nap while Modo called out to Vinny whom poked his head into the room, his expression suspicious as Modo leaned in and nuzzled Rain's cheek then stood up and said, "We're going."

Vinny blinked at that and started to open his mouth when Throttle walked over and wrapped his tail around his younger brother and promptly started to drag him down the hall behind him as he headed for the front door. Leaving Modo alone with Rain to say his goodbyes. The second that Modo heard the front door close, he reached out and grasped Rain's wrist and pulled her to her feet and then wrapped his arms around her and warned, "I'll go for now. But you won't always be able to escape me." Then kissed her forehead and disappeared from the room.

Leaving her standing there feeling dizzy and weak kneed.

Why did she get the impression that she was about to be under siege?


	23. Chapter 23

Rain stood at herr livingroom window watching as the mice left then went back to the couch and laid down for an hour. An hour that she spent crying over Modo's absence. Which wasn't very productive considering that she had told the guys that she had stuff to do.

Even if it had been a lie, they could currently be watching the house to see if she was up to anything.

Pushing herself up into a sitting position she wiped at her eyes, suddenly feeling exhausted. Slowly standing she shuffled her way out of the livingroom and into the bedroom and decided to make a quick phone call into work and tell them that she'd be there later after all. Then she would take a nap and then get up and do some bills before leaving.

_Anything_ to get her mind off of Modo and how much she mourned the fact that she had made him leave.

Even though she felt it was in his best interests.

(*********************************************************************************************************************************************************************************)

Modo watched Rain's house from across the street in an alley where his smokey colored fur blended in with the shadows. After leaving his girl's home, he had ridden around the block before coming back and hiding himself across the street from her home so that he could observe.

_Anything_ to catch a glimpse of his girl. Hell, anything just to be close to her.

So she thought it was in his best interests not to become deeply involved with her. A low rumbling sound escaped his throat. One that was neither chuckle nor growl. His girl was a fool to think that she could scare him off so easily, but he'd keep that to himself as he planned out his next move.

He supposed that for a while he could use the bruise on her side as an excuse to drop by and see her, maybe get his foot back through the door so to speak. But that would only last as long as she _had_ the bruise. After that their relationship would be like a cat and mouse game.

He would have to seduce her senses. Train her mind and body to awknowledge his own as her mate. Make it so that she couldn't survive without him being by her side.

Then and only then- would he truly be able to claim her.

_Game on babe. _He thought as he turned on his heel and quickly walked back to his bike and climbed on and started it up. If he was going to seduce Rain then he was damn well going to do it right. Which meant that he needed new clothes, so a little shopping spree was in order.

(**********************************************************************************************************************************************************************)

Later that night-

Modo sat in his regular booth at the bar with a gin and tonic sitting in front of him as he tapped his fingers on the table and watched Rain. Whom much to his dismay had gone to work anyways. However despite that, he was somewhat relieved to see that she had been placed on light duty so that her wound wouldn't hurt her much.

But that didn't keep him from feeling irked about her being at work and watching her like a hawk for any sign of distress as she poured someone a drink and handed it to them. Like the other night when he'd gotten tipsy, there were a lot of kids in the bar.

Many of whom were on the dance floor dancing.

Sighing, he picked up his shot glass and tossed it back then set it back down and raised his hand to indicate that he wanted another and noticed Rain looking his way, her expression unreadable as she fixed him another drink and slowly, almost as if she were hesitant to approach him, made her way over to his booth and set the shot glass down.

He thanked her and quickly downed it before asking in a rough tone, "What are you doing here?"

She collected the two shot glasses and then glanced at him. Again, her expression was unreadable to him and he didn't like it one bit that she had somehow managed to close herself off to him in such a short time. "I work here." She replied slowly as she stared at him.

He was dressed differently tonight. So much so that he looked totally out of his element. It might have been endearing if he didn't look too damn irresistible to her in the black long sleeved shirt and navy colored jeans that molded to his body like a second skin. Hell, even his biker boots were new.

He reached out and grasped her wrist gently in his hand and said as he glared at her, "Don't be smart with me, Rain. You know exactly what I mean. Why are you here when your hurt?"

"I told you and your brothers earlier that I had stuff to do. This..." She motioned with her free hand towards the bar before continuing. "Is stuff. And believe it or not it takes a lot to get things done around here. I can't afford to take a day off."

Modo narrowed his eye at her, his expression grim as he slid out of his booth to tower over her and forced her to put the shot glasses down. "Rain, darlin, please- I don't waant you to get hurt even worse just because of your need to prove something to yourself. Go home. Take some pain meds, and curl up somewhere and sleep for a while. The bar will still be here when you get back." He said coaxingly, trying to get her to realize her mistake.

He could not and would not sit by and do nothing while she was hurt. He just couldn't.

"I can't."

"Yes you can. Please, I'm not asking for much here-"

Rain made an irritated sound in the back of her throat. He was asking more than he realized. But she supposed leaving now wouldn't hurt anything. As long as she got away from Modo and his sexy new do. "Alright. Alright. I'll go home." She said tiredly as he released her wrist and pulled out his wallet and paid for his drinks then scooped her up before she could react.

A shout of alarm lodged in her throat as she wondered what he was doing. She didn't have to wait long as he pressed his cheek to hers and growled in her ear, "Damn right you will because I'm taking you home personally."


	24. Chapter 24

My apologies kittens- I've been having a lot of health issues and family issues that have caused some stuff to get away from me. I didn't mean to not update for so long. So as a reward for your patience I'm going to write an extra special chap for Shots in the Dark.

Enjoy.

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Modo pulled up to the curb in front of Rain's house and turned his bike off as his girl quickly slipped the extra helmet he carried with him off of her head and tried to slip under his arm and escape him. Slowly, he reached out and placed a large hand against her stomach- stopping her as he lazily pulled his own helmet off. Rain turned her head to glare at him, obviously not liking the way he was handling things with her and he gave her an infuriatingly male smile.

"Hold up there darlin, where's the fire?" He asked curiously as he looked around just to make sure that there was no fire. Rain made this little huffing sound and swatted at his hand with her own and growled,

"No fire. I'm just home-" She sounded like she didn't like being _just_ home. Hell he'd die to be just home. As long as that home included her. "And now I'm saying goodnight." She said as she once again tried to escape him only to be stopped again by his tail this time.

She was angry with him, he could tell by not just the sound of her voice but by how her sweet scent shifted and changed to smelling like ashes. Damn but he needed to get himself together or his girl was going to take out a restraining order against him. Sighing softly he used his tail to maneuver her over to stand beside him as he turned his body in her direction and wrapped his arms around her and gave her a gentle hug.

"I know that you didn't want to leave the bar so soon. And I know that you're pissed about being dragged out of there kicking and screaming- But could you at least_ try_ to understand why I made you leave?"

"Because we had sex and you're feeling territorial." Rain deadpanned, causing Modo to snort and hide his blushing face in her thick dark hair while trying to suppress the urge to laugh. Is that what she thought? _Really? _

"Oh is that why I asked you to leave? Because I think of a place as my competition? If that's the case then once your asleep I'll just go back and burn the place to the ground." He said in an deceptively cheery tone as he started to withdraw from her.

Rain didn't know how they had gotten into this weird conversation.

She didn't know why he had asked her to leave the bar aside from her ribs (not really anyways). And she certainly didn't like the merciless look on his face. So she panicked and placed her hands on both sides of his face, seeking to distract him from destroying the bar that she had poured so much of her young life into- and kissed him hard on the lips.

Modo went totally still, his mind awhirl as Rain started to pull back from him and end the kiss.

Not in any rush to break the contact, he grasped her by the hips and lifted her up and placed her in his lap so that she was straddling him, and palmed the back of her head as he leaned in and kissed her, his tongue sweeping into her mouth and tasting her as he stole her will to continue fighting with him.

Once he had her compliant in his arms, he pulled back breaking the toe curling kiss so that he could dig out her house key and carry her up the pourch steps. upon getting them both inside the dark, silent house, Modo started to make his way to the bed room to put her to bed so that she could rest when he felt one of her hands run up along his ribcage and up to his shoulder causing him to shudder as a particularly strong jolt of desire coursed through him.

God what he'd do to have her invite him to stay.

To lay with her in her bed and sleep with his body curled around hers... He was so deep in thought when he started to lay her on her bed that he almost missed her saying his name not once but twice. Glancing down at her face he was almost startled when she asked him to spend the night with her. Yet at the same time he was elated that she had asked.

So much so that he almost forgot how to speak.

"S-Sure darlin. Whatever you want." He said as he went to lay her down on her bed again when she stopped him for the second time, this time by gently pulling at his ear before saying,

"Would you mind if I took a bath before bed?"

He blinked, then blinked again. Apparently the mere thought of Rain standing in a steaming hot shower with water running down her naked body was almost enough to fell him. Swallowing around the sudden lump in his throat, Modo nodded his head. "Y-Uh, yeah darlin. Go ahead. The warm water would be good for your ribs." He said after a heartbeat or so of silence as he set her on her feet and watched her walk across the pitch black room and flick on the bathroom light.

"Great-" Rain said as she then turned to him and crooked her finger at him. "Come here cowboy." Modo didn't move, he couldn't figure out what she was up too until she walked back to him and grasped his hand and started to pull/drag him over to the bathroom.

She got about half way there when his brain finally kicked into overdrive and he realized that he'd just been invited to bathe with her.


	25. Chapter 25

Standing in the bathroom with the door shut- Modo's senses returned slowly as he looked around the tiny (well okay, it wasn't tiny. It only seemed like it to him due to his size) space that he would be sharing with Rain for the moment and couldn't help wonder if some unknown entity was pulling his leg or something just to get a rise out of him.

Because if he had known simply wishing to stay the night with her would lead to this, he'd have wished them both in the middle of the a couple of the most earth shattering orgasms he could bring them too.

So he closed his eyes for a moment and wished really hard then opened them and bit back an oath.

_Damn._ Didn't he have the crappiest luck.

Checking out the bathroom again, he noted the pale blue walls with cream colored trim. The tiled shower stall against the far wall- and almost missed Rain pulling her shirt over her head, right in front of him.

"Ah, darlin don't move around too much-" He warned, concerned that she'd hurt herself if she did. "I'll help you with your clothes." He said as he moved away from the door to stand directly in front of her and put his hands on her hips and lifted her up and set her down on the sink counter so that he could put himself to work inbetween kisses and such.

Pressing his mouth against her collarbone, he heard Rain's sharp intake of breath as she shivered. He drew back a little bit and smiled then planted another kiss on the swell of her right breast as he skimmed his fingers along the naked skin of her torso and up to the red and black lace underwire bra she was wearing and dug his blunt fingernails into her back, forcing her to arch her back for him- God she looked beautiful in this position.

With her back arched, her lush curves jutting out begging for his attentions. _And he would give every inch of her the attention her body so craved_, he swore to himself. He would worship her like a goddess with his mouth, his tongue, his fingers, and tail. By the time he was done here tonight there would be no question about where she belonged anymore.

He wouldn't allow it.

He scraped his small teeth along the jugular vein in her throat, delighting in how she grasped his shoulders and tried to pull him closer as she gasped just before he claimed her mouth with his own.

Rain wasn't sure if she wanted to laugh or cry. How did she get herself into these situations? She asked herself as she kissed Modo back. What had initally started out as nothing more than a distraction to keep him away from her bar had turned into something more. Something fierce and all consuming- she felt like she was about to literally go up in flames.

And he hadn't even done much of anything yet!

She wrapped one arm around his neck and moved her free hand to the front of his pants, startling him if the way he grabbed her wrist and jerked back away from her breaking the kiss was any indication at all. "Whoa! Time out darlin-" Modo said as he held her hand away from him and looked down at her with a frown.

He was going to take his time here dammit. And nothing, not even her own impatience was going to change his mind.

But at the same time he simply couldn't allow her to get him off and do nothing for her- He was a gentleman after all. He would place her pleasure first and foremost in his mind. Rain glared up at him and growled, "I don't wanna time out- I want you naked. _Now_." His head snapped back on his neck so fast that his head spun for a moment.

_Jesus Christ_, had his Rain really said that?

She hadn't been that vocal about what she had wanted last night... And she'd been totally drunk and without inhibitions. Sure she'd passed out after some intense kissing and petting but still... Where was she getting her confidence from? Cause seeing this side of her was flooring him, truly it was.

"Okay. Okay, but at least let me get you naked first." He said in a tone similar to what he would use if he were trying to reason with Vinny. Something about it must have set her off again because the second he stepped back a little bit to take her shoes off of her, she reached out- grabbed his shirt and pulled him in close enough to bite off one of the buttons.

Modo went eerily still and just stood there gaping at her for a second as she moved on to the next button on his shirt. His eyes tracking her every move as she bit through the threads holding several more buttons onto his shirt before sitting back and looking satisfied with herself as she reached up and slipped her small hands under his shirt and gave it a little nudge.

The fabric fell from his body and hit the floor with a dull thud as he let out a shuddering breath and gave her a hooded look. Okay, he got the message. She didn't have much patience for foreplay at the moment. That was okay- he could still take his time loving her and make her lose all sense of time or self.

Modo's tail snaked around her torso as he reached out and jerked her bra from her body then paused- Was it him or did he suddenly smell the pool of moisture gathering between her legs? He leaned down so that his body was crowding her own, pressing it back against the mirror as he subtly sniffed against the side of her throat.

She smelled like peaches. So sweet and delicious that he couldn't stop the feral urge to put his mouth between her legs and lick and suck until he was hooked on her like a crack addict was addicted to crack.

Using his hands to nudge her legs apart, he leaned his head down so that he could kiss her while he worked on the fly of her jeans. And the second it gave way, he pushed his flesh and blood hand inside the constraining space and lightly probed her core with his fingertips. The moment he found what he was looking for he let out a low growl and pushed a finger inside of her, making her jerk back and cry out at the unexpected sensation.

It wasn't unpleasant, merely surprising. She could feel him rubbing his finger tips back and forth across a particular spot that made her feel dizzy and breathless as she gripped his biceps and tried not to twitch and jerk and act like a bitch in heat too much.

He chuckled as he took in the flush of her skin, the quickness of her breath, the way she started to bite her lower lip just to stiffle her moans and cries. She was close now. One thing about being a martian mouse was you could utilize your senses during a true mating and tell when your mate was about to cum. Of course if Rain had been aware of how he could smell her or just how long his fingers were, she'd probably have broken a lamp over his head already.

He felt her bury her face against his chest as she used one hand to cover her mouth, the sound of a stiffled scream turning to a sob reaching his ears followed by the shaking of her body as she came.

He withdrew his finger from her just long enough to use his tail to lift her up so that he could yank her jeans down her long legs, then settled her back in place and dropped to his knees in front of her and lifted her legs so that her hips were angled just right and kissed his way up the inside of her legs to her core and gave her a long, lazy lick- earning a breathless scream from her as she grabbed a handful of his fur and pulled on it.

Her expression one of shocked surprise as her eyes teared up.

_Oh god, what was- Why was he-_ No one had ever gone this far for her before so she had assumed that Modo would be the same way. That he would simply ignore foreplay and get to the main event. But now that he hadn't and she had already cum, she wasn't sure how much more she could take without losing her mind.

"M-Modo-" She gasped out in a pleading tone, hoping to persuade him to stop what he was doing even though it felt _soooo_ good. Modo looked up at her and wondered what she might try to say and could only hum in response to show that he was listening. "I-I can't- Please...s-stop-" Another lick and she clawed at his flesh with her free hand while she let her head drop back and hit the mirror behind her with a dull thud.

She felt an intense pleasure ripple along her spine and suddenly couldn't breathe as she came for the second time and leaned heavily against the mirror panting as he came back to his feet and quickly ditched his clothing and picked her up and walked over to the shower and turned the water on and let it warm while he stood there rubbing her back with his free hand.

He hoped that she was ready for this. That cumming just two times was enough to prepair her for him because he wasn't sure if he could hold back now.

Stepping into the shower he made sure to position them both directly under the spray and pressed her body against the wall and gave her a deep, lingering kiss as he wrapped her legs around his waist. His cock pressed against her opening as he grasped both of her hands in his and put them on his shoulders and said in a low tone. "Hold onto me."

She looked up at him with a confused expression on her face as he gripped her hips a little harder, sqeezing her tender flesh hard enough to leave marks while he waited for her to comply. She gripped his shoulders firmly in her hands as he licked his lips and said in a hoarse tone, "I'll try to go slow." But it was a promise he doubted he could keep.

She nodded to him only partially understanding his words as she finally noticed that he was slowly pushing into her. Funny how she hadn't noticed until it had started to sting. "Ah-"

"Hold on sweetheart-" He said from between clenched teeth. She took a deep breath and felt the stinging sensation fade to something more and cried out as he pressed himself deeper inside of her.

_"Ah!" _

"Hold on. I'm almost there." Modo ground out, his large body starting to shake from exertion. God, this was more difficult than he had ever thought or imagined. And Rain was so small... What if he broke her in half while trying to mate with her? He wondered. The doubt clouding his mind for several moments until he felt her buck against him and blinked in shock.

Shit, he was there wasn't he? He'd finally made it all the way through- he could feel the way her body gripped him, could _see_ and _feel_ every shudder that wracked her small frame as she wrapped her arms around his neck and kissed him before letting him know that he could move now.


End file.
